8) Urban Growth and Urban Renaissance

• Towns - Population concentration, a political structure (councils, mayors etc) and a community function made a town. There were 3 tiers of towns with these being at the top, then towns with only 2 of those characteristics (e.g. Manchester lacked a political structure until 1833 when it became a municipal borough), and finally, towns with only one of the characteristics. There were about 8 major cities with London being the biggest.
• Relationship between towns and countryside - Food supply linked towns and their rural hinterland as towns were dependent on them for food. But, they also needed the countryside for fuel and labour supply (needed migration for growth). The countryside needed towns for political, legal, religious and financial/commercial services.
• Urban growth and agrarian change - Advances in the countryside enabled urban and industrial growth. Those living in the countryside became more involved in industrial production than agricultural.
• Mobility and migration - Geographical mobility was high with youth migration, life-cycle migration, and families and labourers looking for work. There was short, medium and long distance migration, but there were more short distance migrations after the 16th century. Apprentices and vagrants (who were illegal) moved long distances looking for betterment. Paupers went to towns for subsistence.
• Diversity - Some towns were capital cities, others were provincial market towns, big and small industrial centres, port towns, military centres, religious centres, or centres of leisure facilites. Different counties also saw different processes of urbanisation.

Adams found a deep demographic and economic crisis in provincial towns at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century manifested in depopulation and economic decay. Coventry, York, Oxford and Canterbury were such towns. Growth became evident in many towns, especially the larger urban centres, from the 16th century. But, Dyer said the decline of some towns at the end of the 15th century was made up for by a rise of other towns.

In 1520, the urban sector included only 5.5% of the English population. By 1750, the urban sector included 21% of the English population. By 1750, London had also become the biggest city in Europe, and by 1801, it was one of the largest cities in the world, surpassed only by Edo (Tokyo) and Beijing.

(Withington) Before 1540, most towns weren't incorporated by charter, so they weren't cities. By 1640, many towns had negotiated crown charters which stipulated how their council would work, how much tax and how it should be collected, and how elections would take place etc. Towns also incorporated themselves into political institutions through erecting public buildings like townhalls or grammar schools. There was a total of 133 new public buildings built during this period.

Towns were seen as great killers. Sanitation and water supply was problematic, and houses were small, often sub-divided and over-populated with bad ventilation. There was no running water and primitive sanitation. Diseases rapidly spread causing epidemics, and due to being centres of communication, towns were vulnerable to the importation of new germs. Before the Civil War, many towns were typified by population stagnation, and even some cases of sharp decline. The urban growth in the latter 17th century took place despite the high mortality rates in towns. Infant mortality in London was 1 in 3.

Towns often grew due to migration, not natural growth. But, population growth wasn't necessarily an indication of positive urban development and growth. Without migration, early modern towns wouldn't have been able to expand and would have probably diminished. But, the enormous growth in population also led to unemployment, for example, which then led to pauper migration. Wrigley estimated London required a supply of 8000 migrants per annum from 1650-1750 just to maintain its annual increase and cover the shortfall caused by high death rates.

Pauper migration was particularly acute in about 1640. People were driven to towns by the pressure of over-population, unemployment or shortage of housing in the countryside. Urban growth wasn't leading to economic growth. Urban stagnation was manifested in declining populations and in the influx of pauper migrants.

Local industries were decaying in towns due to the growth of rural industries. The textile industry suffered the most. Similar problems of rural competition were noticed in European towns. Some towns developed specialised industries to combat the new difficulties, and so were trying to help the poor. e.g. Colchester developed a new textile industry. The 'New Draperies' brought over by Flemmish immigrants gave the textile industry a huge boost. But, stories of urban success were the exception. Many established towns struggled to survive with secondary forms of manufacture, like tanning, leather trade, metalwork and malting. (Clark)

From the 17th century, there was a decline in Baltic trade and growth in Atlantic trade which had a detrimental effect on some east-facing ports. Prolonged wars of religion in Europe also had a detrimental effect on the textile trade. But, there were also changing tastes and fashions with cap manufacturers in Bristol, for e.g., increasingly out of business due to the growing preference for hats in the early 16th century.

There were several phases of bad times and short term difficulties. In the early Tudor period, there was economic decay in over 70 provincial towns. Heavy royal taxation, trade disruption, bad harvests and epidemics all added to existing pressures on urban centres. Religious and insitutional change brought good and bad. e.g. Bristol benefitted from recieving dissolution land turning it into city property, but the closure of a Peterborough abbey caused disruption to trade. 

The crisis of the 1590s exposed the structural weakness of many towns. Many towns suffered acute shortages and economic decay between the 1580s and 1604. In towns like Reading, mortality rates soared due to starvation and related diseases. These critical conditions recurred in the 1620s and persisted on and off until about 1640. Attacks of plague also struck and the Thirty Years War disrupted overseas trade.

Then, the Civil War caused great disruptions. Immigrants fled into towns from the hinterland which presented a burden and further disrupted urban life. Foreign and inland trade were disrupted, and troops seized roads and destroyed bridges. Soldiers killed urban populations and plundered shops and houses. Lands constantly changed hands too bringing much disruption with it. e.g. Winchester suffered repeated attacks by both Royalists and Parliamentarians. The pressure of the war years that followed decades of problematic economic conditions and occasional acute crises marked a low in the history of many towns.

It was the poor who suffered the most though.

During the Restoration and onwards, pauper migration significantly declined. There was economic resurgence, industrial specialisation, growth of overseas trade, and towns were becoming distributive centres. e.g. in 1702, Preston had 1 butcher, but by 1742, it had no fewer than 33. A leisure industry developed with many towns by the middle of the 18th century having local newspapers and subscription libraries. Notions of politeness also developed. People were wanting to expand and decorate their homes.

Diversity, complexity and dynamism also emerged. The urban growth wasn't only in numbers, but also in urban commerce and amenities like, theatres, walks, promenades, libraries and cafes where polite and educated urban dwellers congregated to do business and exchange ideas. Borsay said the period between 1680-1760 saw an urban renaissance, but it's debatable whether this is the case.

McInnis argued the urban renaissance was limited to a small number of leisure towns  like Bath, or provincial capitals that developed circles of genteel life. Beyond 1760, beyond the thin veneer of polite culture in provincial urban centres, there were the sprawling slums and hub of poor industrial dwellings that became the mark of urban life during the years of the industrial revolution beginning in the latter 18th century.