This book is about the economy of the Carolingian empire (753–877), which extended from the Pyrenees and the northern shores of the Mediterranean to the North Sea, and from the Atlantic coast to the Elbe and Saale rivers. It is the first comprehensive evaluation of the topic in English in over twenty years. The study of the Carolingian empire as an economic rather than a political entity can be justified both because of the major interference of political authority in the economy, and because of the distinctive economic characteristic of growth; and while some regions within the empire had a much more developed economy than others, the whole period is basically one of economic expansion, in parallel with the cultural upheaval of the 'Carolingian Renaissance'.

The transformation of the Roman towns 1 2 The nadir of urban life (sixth-seventh centuries) 24 3 New urban beginnings and the Viking raids (eighth-ninth centuries) 44 4 The urbanization of the high Middle Ages (tenth-eleventh centuries) 68 5 Industrialization, commercial expansion and emancipation (eleventh-twelfth centuries) 6 Conclusion Bibliography Index v Maps Cities and towns between the Somme and the Meuse/Rhine delta up to the twelfth century xii-xiii

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