 From the beginning, commerce together with arts and crafts have been closely linked to being a town and when Christopher of Bavaria in August 1442 awarded Varde its first borough/market town privileges, it had already functioned as a borough/market town for a long time.Most importantly this meant, that peasants trading goods in country stores was outlawed, but at the same time, that the merchants of the town were now officially recognized as having exclusive rights to conducting trade in the town.Although the royal letter of privilege from 1442 has been long lost, the text is known from a transcript from 1648.