The towns of England and northern Italy in the early fourteenth century

Britnell, Richard

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.1991.tb01262.x

Cited by 4 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…These mature urban networks performed many key political and economic functions for the polities and economies in which they were embedded. While some city dwellers engaged in supplementary food production and other extractive pursuits, by the fourteenth century urban populations were fully engaged in non-agricultural production—and dependent on market exchange to meet their subsistence needs [ 3 – 7 , 14 , 23 , 45 , 47 , 90 – 92 ]. Thus, as nodes of exchange, consumption, and production within wider urban systems, medieval European cities supported interdependent economic networks that facilitated a well-developed division of labor [ 3 – 6 , 11 , 13 – 15 , 18 , 46 , 64 , 93 ].…”

Section: Medieval European Urban Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With this hegemonic power, Italian city-state capitals dominated their political subordinates through redistribution, institutional privileges, and monopoly. This ensured that commodities, capital, and labor flowed into capitals at the expense of minor centers [ 4 – 6 , 14 , 16 , 50 , 51 , 93 , 114 , 116 ]. The Italian urban network was Europe’s primary hub of international and long-distance trade, a major source of commercial demand for goods and services of all kinds, and the birthplace of sophisticated financial institutions [ 4 , 5 , 12 , 13 , 16 , 93 , 115 ].…”

Section: Medieval European Urban Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Italian cities were also major centers of guild-based textile manufacturing and craft production in artisanal suburbs [ 4 , 5 , 11 , 13 – 16 , 93 , 117 , 118 ]. However, because larger Italian cities dominated their smaller neighbors politically and militarily, walls imposed a crucial constraint on the spatial growth of suburbs in most cities [ 4 – 6 , 14 , 16 , 99 , 115 , 119 ]. Taken together, the commercial integration, abundance of capital city loci of elite demand, necessity of walls for spatial expansion, and long-term demographic scale of Italian cities ca .1300 imply densely compacted socioeconomic networks.…”

Section: Medieval European Urban Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Situated within agrarian societies, productivity was lower, technology simpler, and the market economy much less developed [ 6 , 11 , 36 , 43 – 47 ]. Church, crown, and guilds had a far greater influence on the regulation of social and economic life than in both more recent and contemporary urban systems [ 4 – 7 , 9 , 10 , 14 , 48 – 54 ]. Cast in this light, medieval cities appear structured, corporate societies where social groupings limited social and economic opportunities for individuals and households to a much greater extent than today.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Population-Area Relationship for Medieval European Cities

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Medieval European urbanization presents a line of continuity between earlier cities and modern European urban systems. Yet, many of the spatial, political and economic features of medieval European cities were particular to the Middle Ages, and subsequently changed over the Early Modern Period and Industrial Revolution. There is a long tradition of demographic studies estimating the population sizes of medieval European cities, and comparative analyses of these data have shed much light on the long-term evolution of urban systems. However, the next step—to systematically relate the population size of these cities to their spatial and socioeconomic characteristics—has seldom been taken. This raises a series of interesting questions, as both modern and ancient cities have been observed to obey area-population relationships predicted by settlement scaling theory. To address these questions, we analyze a new dataset for the settled area and population of 173 European cities from the early fourteenth century to determine the relationship between population and settled area. To interpret this data, we develop two related models that lead to differing predictions regarding the quantitative form of the population-area relationship, depending on the level of social mixing present in these cities. Our empirical estimates of model parameters show a strong densification of cities with city population size, consistent with patterns in contemporary cities. Although social life in medieval Europe was orchestrated by hierarchical institutions (e.g., guilds, church, municipal organizations), our results show no statistically significant influence of these institutions on agglomeration effects. The similarities between the empirical patterns of settlement relating area to population observed here support the hypothesis that cities throughout history share common principles of organization that self-consistently relate their socioeconomic networks to structured urban spaces.

show abstract

Section: Medieval European Urban Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Medieval European Urban Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Medieval European Urban Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Population-Area Relationship for Medieval European Cities

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…All of this mercantile diligence was greatly favoured by the remarkable centrality of English politics, since all of its cities were equally subordinate to the unique power of the King, and consequently the network between those cities was eventually established as a result of their strict, economic functionality. For the purpose of comparison and contrast with the city-states of the 14th Century of the north of Italy, one can refer toBritnell (1991).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

One sociological approach to some classic themes of English Political Economy

Allones

2018

Nomadas. Critical Journal of Social and Juridicals Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract.-The paper seeks to raise awareness of the sheer expansive force of capitalism, a social fact that has completely transformed Western societies in the last 600 years. Although the text draws on the simplest and most sound categories of Marx’s labour theory of value, its focus is to show the power and political relationships that take place within enterprises –a new servitude. Our analytical method, as well as its empirical validation, builds on Durkheim’s concept of ‘reaction of punishment’. The paper also explores the historical and structural relations between the advanced sociability of our middle classes and their government by representative assemblies elected by them. For this purpose, we draw on the history of English parliamentarianism, from its social origins in the Normand invasion (1066), to its historical eclosion in the North American democracy (1787). Our interpretation is sociological, seeking the meaning of those exceptional historical transformations, and finding it –paradoxically-in the contrast between the ideal types of Community and Association established by German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies. The text also analyses how individualism is originated in capitalist competition, and finishes by pointing out from where(within the social structure) such ideology is propagated as the only one that should shape our behaviour. Keywords:surplus value.-invisible hand.-English exceptionalism.-Ferdinand Tönnies.-empirical measurement.-Spencer-Brown Una aproximación sociológica a algunos temas clásicos de La Economía Política Inglesa Resumen.-El texto pretende hacernos conscientes de la tremenda fuerza expansiva del capitalismo, un hecho social que ha transformado por completo a las sociedades occidentales en los últimos 600 años. Utiliza las categorías más sencillas y consolidadas de la teoría del valor-trabajo de Marx, pero su objetivo es mostrar a las relaciones que tienen lugar en el interior de las empresas como relaciones de poder, como relaciones políticas, una nueva servidumbre. Para ello el método de análisis que aplicamos es muy próximo al concepto de ‘reacción penal’ de Durkheim - incluso en la propuesta que hacemos para su validación empírica. El estudio se pregunta además por las relaciones históricas y estructurales entre la sociabilidad avanzada de nuestras clases medias y su gobierno por asambleas representativas, que ellas mismas eligen. Para ello recurrimos a la historia del parlamentarismo inglés, desde sus lejanos orígenes sociales, que encontramos en la Invasión Normanda de la isla (1066), hasta su cabal eclosión histórica en la democracia norteamericana (1787). Pero nuestra interpretación es sociológica, busca el sentido de esas transformaciones históricas excepcionales, y lo halla (paradójicamente) en el contraste entre los tipos-ideales de Comunidad y Asociación establecidos en su día por el sociólogo alemán Ferdinand Tönnies.A lo largo del texto analizamos también cómose origina el individualismo en la competición capitalista, y finaliza señalando desde dónde (en el interior de la estructura social) se propaga dicha ideología, como la única considerada de recibo para orientar nuestro comportamiento. Palabras clave:plusvalía.-mano invisible.-excepcionalismo inglés.-F. Tönnies.-medición empírica.-Spencer-Brown

show abstract

The Spread of Sharecropping in Tuscany: The Political Economy of Transaction Costs

Emigh¹

1997

American Sociological Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The towns of England and northern Italy in the early fourteenth century

Cited by 4 publications

References 17 publications

Population-Area Relationship for Medieval European Cities

Population-Area Relationship for Medieval European Cities

One sociological approach to some classic themes of English Political Economy

The Spread of Sharecropping in Tuscany: The Political Economy of Transaction Costs

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About