Introduction

The origin of auctions reaches back into the ancient civilisations and almost certainly came about as a logical extension of barter. It is easy to imagine the scenario of a street trader in some bygone city faced with a throng of people anxious to buy his wares and chancing upon a crude form of auctioning the goods to the highest bidders. Soon others followed his example and gradually over the years disputes and arguments created a crude style and form of auction. From here it was but a small step to adapt the system for the sale of goods to anything for which there was a demand. The auction sale of real property as we know it today has been perfected and honed to its present form over many hundreds of years.