Urban fortunes in Early Modern Period
- Created by: Alasdair
- Created on: 25-05-18 10:37
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- Urban fortunes in Early Modern Period (according to Penny Roberts)
- Economic activity differed enormously between towns
- according to size, location and type of trade or manufacture
- Local, regional and national economies all had a part to play
- Increasingly, national networks too
- With opening up of trade routes with Africa, Asia and newly discovered Americas
- Europe experienced shift of emphasis and prosperity away from Mediterranean towards Atlantic
- some towns in positioned to benefit from trend
- some towns declined because of trend
- Europe experienced shift of emphasis and prosperity away from Mediterranean towards Atlantic
- Other factors which affected urban fortunes:
- growth of administrative centres
- impact of war
- While we see exponential urban growth overall throughout period, it is misleading to perceive this as a general, even usual, trend
- estimated population of towns doubled between 1500 and 1800
- De Vries and other scholars propose
- different regional characteristic
- Prak and other scholars argue:
- stagnation was more characteristic
- England and northern Netherlands were thus exceptional and precocious in their development
- According to Epstein
- Contrary to common perception, urbanisation can be seen as poor indicator of economic development
- if we compare Castile and England for instance, suggesting political protection rather than market pressure was decisive factor in growth (and decline) of many an early modern town
- Contrary to common perception, urbanisation can be seen as poor indicator of economic development
- Continuing significance of certain hindrances to urban growth prevented towns from realising their full potential
- except in Dutch case
- poor infrastructure
- especially slow and cumbersome transport of goods by water or road
- high transaction and customs costs in between (and especially within) countries
- Ports, overseas trade and dominant economies
- beginning of period witnessed growth of Iberian port cities of Lisbon and Seville
- due to burgeoning trade with Asia and with the Americas
- Rise of French Atlantic ports, and later, Bristol and Liverpool with increase in slave trade
- Mediterranean trade did not dry up
- Italian ports
- especially Venice and Genoa
- still prosperous at least through C16th
- supplemented by important Italian banking houses
- Italian ports
- French ports
- southern port of Marseille
- increasingly active in commerce
- city of Lyon (not a port)
- thrived due to its position at hub of European trade and development of its banking facilities
- southern port of Marseille
- Italy, cities of Lisbon and Antwerp
- economy (of Italy) and prosperity (of cities) in clear decline in C17th
- due to being eclipsed by growing economic dominance of Dutch
- economy (of Italy) and prosperity (of cities) in clear decline in C17th
- growing economy of Dutch
- Spectacular rise of Amsterdam
- population of over 200,000 c. 1650
- as entrepot or storehouse through which goods from all over known world would flow
- Dutch increasingly dominated trade routes
- through Mediterranean
- out to Atlantic
- lucrative carrying trade into Baltic
- established financial dominance with founding of first national bank in 1609
- London bank was not est. until 1690s with Hamburg only other competitor at that point
- Dutch only displaced later in C17th
- Principally by England but also by France
- they became dominant economic and political powers of Europe
- Principally by England but also by France
- Spectacular rise of Amsterdam
- beginning of period witnessed growth of Iberian port cities of Lisbon and Seville
- More subtle developments within regions
- Hanseatic League
- confederation of North European town such as Lubeck
- towns in their heyday had dominated Baltic trade
- began to decline by 1500
- shift of economic prosperity south towards centres like Augsburg and Nuremberg
- followed by further readjustments due to impact of Thirty Years War (1618-48)
- After Thirty Years War
- imperial success stories were strategically placed towns of Hamburg and Danzig, alongside growing administrative centres like Berlin
- Being strategically placed and administrative centre also contributed to rapid growth of Madrid
- established seat of government in Spain in mid-C16th
- displaced older centres in Castile
- established seat of government in Spain in mid-C16th
- Hague in Netherlands
- new administrative rather than commercial centre
- In Paris. France
- population of Paris more than doubled to over 500,000
- creation of Versailles from 1680s
- Louis XIV's court was great consumer, encouraging urban (and rural) growth in vicinity
- decline of Prague
- as Bohemia was absorbed into Hasburg Austrian orbit
- Growth of Rome
- greater focus on town planning as period proceeded led to demolition of medieval walls and opening up of boulevards
- In other, declining towns, populations retreated within their walls
- Hanseatic League
- Economic activity differed enormously between towns
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