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Transport history has developed in close association with urban network theory. However, this association has often remained implicit and not conceptualised. This article starts from an overview of the historiography on urban networks to question the limitations of historical urban network theory by highlighting the connection between an incomplete mapping of hinterlands and the prevalence of a neo-Christallerian model in the interpretation of their network shape. The concept of the “urban logistic network” is proposed as an alternative historical approach that focuses on the interaction between urban systems on the one hand, and transport and mobility on the other hand. In particular, it enables to clarify the conflated concepts of gateways and hinterlands and constructs a taxonomy that allows the examination of network patterns on a variety of geographical scales. It also identifies the variety of network shapes that are created in urban systems by different logistic connections.

Palgrave Studies in Economic History is designed to illuminate and enrich our understanding of economies and economic phenomena of the past. The series covers a vast range of topics including financial history, labour history, development economics, commercialisation, urbanisation, industrialisation, modernisation, globalisation, and changes in world economic orders.

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2 G. FAVERO ET AL.present. Comparative urban history analysis, according to Clark, was a stirring interest 50 years ago, but it met a sudden halt, or at least a deviation (Clark, 2013, p. 2). To revive such analyses, Clark's handbook used two strategies: first, the provision of case studies, and second, the offering of key variables that help explicate, distinguish, and connect urban systems and networks.The present volume also aims to be a handbook, or rather a toolbox, by providing case studies for urban historians that will hopefully lead to effective comparative research. The primary attention here is on what we call urban logistics, by which we mean urban management and operations of flow as well as circulation of goods and people, in particular, the systems and networks made out of them. This book is primarily about the interconnections between trade and transport and between urban systems and networks. Surprisingly, trade and transport networks are not emphasized in the above-cited Handbook of Cities in World History. As Clark (2013) admits, with the rise of mega-cities, the focus of urban history research shifted more and more towards urbanization and how large cities emerged and grew. Phenomenal works on Global Cities strengthened the trend to look at large cities as well as international flows of capital and migrations (Sassen, 1991). The situation was much different 30-40 years ago. There was a boom in the historical analysis of urban networks for European history that was connected with trade and transport history, as if they were siblings.Numerous case studies were written; models were discovered and tried.At the present time, however, one cannot deny the relative stagnation of urban network research in history and the lack of synthesis of the research that does exist. A critical review linking existing theories on the formation and evolution of urban networks in the long term with historical studies on transport and distribution is needed in order to provide a new interpretation of the role of gateways. Such an effort has already recently been undertaken by Mizushima, Souza, and Flynn (2014), which may set a precedent for this volume. Reflecting the results of new insights coming from other regions to European history and laying down stepping stones for global comparison is one of the aims of this volume. This book's strategy is to provide bottom-up case studies that give insights into how to deal with urban networks and systems. Our analysis focuses on the regions of Italy, the Low Countries, Ireland, Brittany in Western France, Scandinavia, and the Baltic regions. These regions have 476667_1_En_1_Chapter TYPESET DISK LE CP Disp.