Pre-Conquest York is described in Domesday Book as comprising seven districts, or shires. One of these is assumed to have been what was later referred to as Marketshire, because it encompassed the earliest and most important of the city markets: the butchery, or Shambles (not strictly a market), Pavement,and probably the Thursday Market, both being general provisions markets. Not until the sixteenth century does there seem to have been differentiation in commodities sold at each site.

These marketplaces were approached by roads from the city's two principal bridges, crossing the Ouse river and its tributary the Foss; the bridges were themselves commercialized sites. Ouse Bridge, flanked by quaysides, housed across its main body and along the approaches at either end some three dozen shops (rented from the city) of mercers, spicers, goldsmiths, clothiers, skinners, and a variety of other craftsmen, while there stood an administrative building called (probably significantly) the Tollbooth at the corner where quayside and bridge met. Foss Bridge was also home to a few shops as well as a fish market; the combined rents of the stalls there was the most lucrative single item in the portfolio o f civic properties, when a register of those properties was compiled ca. 1376. Pavement, so named probably because one of the first city streets to be paved, had likely been a market site well before acquiring that name; its commerce spread out southwards along Ousegate, leading to the bridge, and Coppergate which led to the principal quayside. As was the case at London and some other larger towns, a number of smaller markets specializing in particular commodities (e.g. livestock) developed at York, but on the whole the Pavement and particularly the Thursday Market, with their approach roads, seem to have served as general markets.

Although the Thursday Market was so-named by the thirteenth century, Sunday was the official market-day, when rural traders supplemented locals in offering goods for sale; a Sunday market was prohibited in 1322, and thereafter the days varied from market to market, although many may have seen some activity on an almost daily basis. However, old habits died hard and some traders continued to conduct business on Sundays, with an informal market often taking place in the churchyard of St. Michael le Belfrey (located in the north-western part of the city, away from the formal marketplaces). This was outrageous to churchmen and, in 1426, acting upon pressure from an influential Franciscan a renewed ban on Sunday marketing was proclaimed, though whether any more effective we do not know.

As one of the largest concentrations of population in northern England, the base of shrieval and archepiscopal administrations, the site of royal minting operations (diminishing during the thirteenth century), and an inland port where officials of the customs administration operated, York was an important market centre both for local consumption and for redistribution of raw materials and manufactured goods. Although its leading merchants made their fortunes from trading wool, and later cloth, the export business appears less a preoccupation of civic authorities than the city's food supply, on which the welfare of a much larger percentage of the residents relied, and which was one of the foundations of maintenance of social order. They sought to centralize trade in foodstuffs through the designated markets, for reasons intended to benefit consumers and to facilitate market administration, although it looks to have been a constant struggle, as less scrupulous dealers and petty traders favoured a 'black market' approach that would enable them more flexibility in price-setting, less overhead in terms of tolls, and less supervision of their practices and the quality of their goods.

The above regulations relating to fish and fowl, although not assigned a date in the Memorandum Book, are interspersed with documents of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century, and the mention of the sheriffs indicates the regulations post-date events of 1396, when that office was first instituted at York; one of the sheriffs' responsibilities was to enforce the assizes and other market regulations, as it was of the bailiffs who were superseded by the office of sheriff. The upper terminus for date is indicated by a marginal note indicating that during the mayoralty of 14117/18 the admission fee was reduced to half the level given above, while there was an additional reduction for fishmongers who paid the city for the privilege of selling fish from the Foss Bridge.

A much earlier effort to regulate the fishmongers' trade is seen in a set of ordinances issues by the York authorities in 1301. The passage related to fishmongers (both residents and outsiders) required them to restrict their selling to the locations designated as fish markets – one for saltwater and another for freshwater fish – and to the same hours indicated in the above proclamation about sale of victuals in the Thursday Market, as well as to conduct the selling personally, rather than passing fish along to middlemen; fish brought into the city from the hinterland could not be taken out again, but had to be sold there, and fresh fish not sold on the first day had to be salted before being put up for sale again. Offenders against these rules faced, progressively, increasing fines, a beating, and being banned from practising the trade. Poulterers were not one of the direct targets of the 1301 ordinances, but in 1389 the city authorities ordered that all outsiders bringing poultry or fowl into the city – this probably representing the majority of traders in such commodities – sell them through the Thursday Market, and not to inns or private houses; if they arrived in town in advance of market day, their goods had to be inspected by the market warden before accommodations were taken for the night. That ordinance also set prices for much the same list of fowl as in the later list given above.

Regulations governing the Ousegate market for freshwater fish were issued around 1418, ostensibly by the fishmongers' craft itself. These acknowledged the authority, over all fishmongers associated with that market, of the craft searchers, who were themselves answerable to the mayor for any maladministration. Fishermen from outside the city were prohibited from unloading their boats at the Fish Landing on the north side of Ouse Bridge, being instead directed to a section of the quayside on the other side of the bridge, and; they, along with outsiders bringing modest quantities of freshwater fish by road, were required to sell their catch at the point on the bridge where a stone cross stood. Residents were forbidden to sell freshwater fish on the Foss Bridge (which was reserved for saltwater fish), or from any location other than the designated market on Ouse Bridge.

We can see from these various ordinances that civic officials were conscious they could not rely purely on local dealers to provision the city at reasonable prices. Not only farmers bringing grain and other agricultural produce, but al so outsider butchers, bakers, fishmongers, and poulterers were welcome to sell at York, so long as they adhered to marketing principles and standards; it would have been inadvisable to treat them much differently to local retailers and risk them transferring their trade to markets elsewhere, but their activities must have been harder to police and so required some special attention. At the same time, effort was made to limit victuallers' activities to the assigned marketplaces, where official supervision could be carried out more effectively. The ordinance about the sale of fowl was produced for public proclamation in the marketplace, where both residents and outsiders could hear it; although whether it was proclaimed more than once cannot be known.

That ordinance, since it concerns itself with birds less regularly found on the dinner-table, is presumably a supplement to some already well-known price structure for goods more commonly sold in the Thursday Market, including chickens, which are conspicuous by their absence. We have a late fourteenth century list of tolls on goods sold in that marketplace (although it is so short as to seem incomplete and may itself have been a supplementary list), and none of the fowl from the later list are mentioned, although we learn that a halfpenny was payable as toll for every four piglets sold. A civic ordinance of 1301 regarding the practices of common cooks ordered them to sell at reasonable prices, particularly specifying that roast chicken (as well as chicken encased within bread (a medieval precursor to the sandwich) be sold for no more than 2d. a helping, and roast goose for no more than 4d. The same regulation specified that cooks should only use wholesome fish or meat, avoiding any of the latter which had already been exposed for sale through the course of a summer's day.