Chapter 21 CHAPTER III CITY DEVELOPMENT AFTER THE CRASH OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the situation of urban residents was similar to that of rural residents, and it was very different from the residents of the ancient Greek and Italian republics.In the republics of ancient Greece and Italy, the majority of the inhabitants were landowners, who held the commons separately and defended them together by means of walled adjoining houses.However, since the collapse of the Roman Empire, most of the landowners in Rome have been scattered in their respective territories, living with tenant farmers and subjects; most of the town residents are merchants and artisans in a situation similar to slavery.

The rights embodied in the charters of important European urban residents can fully reflect their living conditions before they obtained these rights.These charters endow urban people with the following three rights: first, they can freely marry their daughters without the consent of the lord; second, after someone dies, his property can be inherited by his children and grandchildren instead of the lord; .From this it can be seen that, before these regulations were promulgated, the townspeople were almost in the same position of low slaves as the peasants in the country. These urban residents are obviously poor and humble. They carry goods on their shoulders to go to the market, similar to today's peddlers who pull carts and run from here to there.The European countries at that time were similar to the nomadic peoples in northern Asia today. Taxes were often imposed on travelers or their goods who passed certain fiefdoms, bridges, or crossed markets to market or sell goods at stalls.In England, these taxes are called boundary tax, bridge tax, landing theory, and apportionment tax.Certain merchants were sometimes exempted from these taxes, especially those residing in the domains of kingdoms and, in some cases, great lords with kingly powers.Although these merchants resembled slavery in every other respect, they were still free merchants, who only had to repay the protection of their protectors in the form of paying some poll tax each year.Since the only way to obtain protection relatively easily at that time was to pay generous rewards, we can regard the poll tax as compensation for the protectors to abandon other taxes.This quid pro quo is at first limited to individuals, and its duration may be determined by the likes and dislikes of the citizens or protectors.In the British land account book, there are some incomplete records about several cities, which often mention that a certain citizen pays some poll taxes to the king or great lord in return for this protector; there is also the sum of the taxes paid by these people .

However humble the city-dwellers may have been at first, they attained their liberty and independence much earlier than the country cultivators.The poll tax for the inhabitants of the city was part of the king's revenue, and its amount was usually fixed by the king, usually by the magistrate or other person who held office for a certain number of years.Often, however, this tax can also be collected by the credited citizens themselves, and the citizens can also demand that they be jointly responsible for the entire amount of the tax.This tax package method is quite suitable for the general economy of European countries.Because they are used to handing over all the taxes of the manor to the tenant farmers, making them jointly responsible for all the taxes; moreover, this method is also beneficial to the tenants, allowing them to collect taxes in their favorite way It was an extremely important event at that time to pay the tax directly to the treasury through the hands of the tenants themselves, avoiding the brutality of the king's servants.

The rent paid by the citizens was originally as limited as the rent paid by the peasants, but later it became permanent with the advancement of the times, and once the tax amount was determined, it could not be increased.All other taxes, which are conditional on the payment of this tax, are thus exempted, not only from a single individual, but from all citizens of a particular city.The city is therefore called a free city, and its citizens are called free citizens or free merchants for the same reason. Along with this right, granted to the general citizens of a particular city, are the important privileges we mentioned earlier, namely, the right to marry a daughter, the right to inherit children, and the right to make a will.Whether these important privileges were often conferred upon citizens with the liberty of trade, I know not; it may be the case, though I have no evidence to confirm it directly.In any case, from this time on, citizens have lost their main attributes of lowly servants and slaves, and have what we now call freedom.

In addition, citizens also set up a kind of self-government agency, and have the right to elect a mayor, establish a city council, a city government, promulgate city-level regulations, build self-defense castles, help residents practice wars and serve as defenses, and have the right to require all Residents are responsible for defense day and night when encountering enemy attacks or accidents.Citizens in England are generally exempt from the jurisdiction of county courts and state courts; all lawsuits except public prosecutions can be judged by the mayor.Elsewhere in Europe, mayors are given greater jurisdiction than their counterparts in England.

In cities where the municipal tax is collected by the citizens, the citizens must have some jurisdiction to compel the taxpayer to pay.However, if the country is in turmoil at this time, it must be very difficult for them to go to other courts to request such a judgment.Why should the princes of Europe exchange this part of their taxation for a fixed tax?We also know that, of all taxes, this tax is the least costly, so it will naturally increase. It is also curious that princes should automatically establish a kind of independent democracy in the center of their dominions.To explain why, we must relate to the chaotic situation at that time.Under the circumstances of the time, there was probably no sovereign in the countries of Europe who could protect the weak people in the country from the oppression of the great lords.This part of the weak people who are not protected by the laws of the country and unable to defend themselves have only two ways to go. One is to devote themselves to a certain big lord and rely on being a slave to beg the protection of the slave owner; the other is to unite and protect each other. .Individual citizens are powerless to defend themselves, but once they form an offensive and defensive alliance, they will have resistance that cannot be underestimated.The lords are often full of contempt for the citizens, thinking that they are freed slaves who are different from themselves.Therefore, the lords are often jealous and angry at the wealthy citizens, and they bully and humiliate the citizens without mercy when they have the opportunity.As a result, the citizens are of course full of jealousy and fear of the lord.At the same time, the king was full of jealousy and fear of the lord.Although the king despises the citizens, he has no reason to hate and fear them.Therefore, the king and the citizens formed an alliance against the lord out of consideration of mutual interests.

Since the king and the citizens have a common enemy, the king must try his best to stabilize the position of the citizens without relying on their common enemy out of self-interest.Therefore, the king gave the citizens the right to elect mayors, and allowed them to formulate municipal regulations, build self-defense castles, conduct military training, and so on.Thus the king, within the sphere of his power, endowed the citizens with every means of independence and security, which made them independent of their lords.But such an alliance can provide permanent security to the population, and great assistance to the king, only if it has a normal organization of government, and an authority to enforce obedience.As for the behavior of the king to permanently outsource the city tax to the citizens, it shows that the king hopes that these citizens who can become friends and allies with him will not doubt his sincerity.In this way, the citizens will not have to worry that the king will oppress them again, nor will they have to worry that the king will increase the tax amount or subsidize taxes to others.

Although the king had the worst feelings for the lord, he gave the greatest bounty to the citizens, among which King John of England was the most important.In France under Philip I, the government completely lost the power to command the lords.According to Father Daniel, in the last years of Philip I, his son "Fat Louis" called various bishops in the country to discuss with them the appropriate way to ban the lord's atrocities.The following are the two proposals of the bishops: one is to create a new jurisdiction system within the territory of the king, and establish a mayor and a city council; Aid the king.According to various French archaeologists, the mayor system and the city council system in France were created at this time; and the various privileges of most of the free cities in Germany were also obtained during the reign of Suabia.At the same time, the famous Hanseatic League also began to show its edge.

At this time, the strength of the urban militia and the rural militia is almost equal, and they can gather urgently in case of emergency, so they often have an advantage in disputes with local lords.The situation in Italy, Switzerland and other places is different. The monarch has completely lost power to those cities that are far away from the capital, have their own natural strength, and other characteristic cities.However, most of the local citizens gradually developed and eventually became an independent democratic society that conquered the local aristocracy, and thus had the power to force the aristocrats to demolish the country castles and let them live in the city like other peaceful residents.The Democratic Republic of Berne, as well as many Swiss metropolises, followed a similar development.From the end of the twelfth century to the beginning of the sixteenth century, apart from Venice, countless other metropolises in Italy that experienced ups and downs also had a similar development process.

Although the royal powers of Britain and France have been strong and weak at times, they have never disappeared, which makes the city no chance of complete independence.However, due to the increasing power of the citizens, the king can only collect upstream city taxes without the consent of the citizens, otherwise the king will not be able to collect taxes smoothly.If the king is in urgent need, he will notify all the people in the country and order the city to send representatives to the Congress, let them discuss relevant issues with priests and nobles, and then provide special financial assistance to the king.Since the representatives of the citizens are generally aligned with the king, they sometimes organize with the king to fight against the big lords in the parliament.From this we can see that the history of representatives of citizens attending the parliaments of the major European monarchies can be traced back to this point.

In this case, cities are established one after another, and each city is in a state of order, and at the same time there is a good government that can guarantee the liberty and safety of individuals.However, the rural farmers were still under all kinds of persecution by the nobles. They had no ability to defend themselves, so they could only be satisfied with the treatment just enough to maintain their livelihood.And, even if they had more wealth, it would be taken away by their oppressors with more draconian demands.If rural farmers are sure to enjoy the fruits of their labor in person, they will naturally try to improve their situation and obtain necessities, conveniences and entertainment according to their needs.Therefore, those industries that produce non-necessities of life are generally established first in the cities, and will not appear in the countryside until a long time later.Where there are cheap slaves, even if the poor peasants have a little savings, they must carefully hide it, so as not to be seen by the lord and appropriated for themselves; if the peasants have the opportunity, they will flee to the city to live.Since the law at that time was lenient to the citizens and eager to reduce the power of the lord, the peasants who fled to the city could obtain freedom for life as long as they were not captured by the lord within a year.Therefore, in the eyes of the industrious inhabitants of the country, the city is their only refuge.Once they have savings, they will flee to the city. The food, materials and industries needed by the city are ultimately provided by the countryside, but the scope has expanded from the adjacent countryside to farther places.For example, in cities near the sea and along rivers, the places where residents obtain these items are not limited to the neighboring villages, and may even be very far away from the neighboring villages.They either engage in manufacturing and exchange their own manufactured products for other items; or they engage in transportation, traveling between distant countries and exchanging products from different countries to obtain various items they need. A city, even if its neighboring villages and the villages with which it trades with is in a state of scarcity or even decline in resources, it can still develop gradually and grow stronger and stronger.Because although the food and labor that each village can provide is limited, the total amount of food and labor provided by these villages is quite considerable.In fact, even when the scope of commerce was still very narrow, some countries were greatly developed, and even reached the level of prosperity and prosperity.Such countries or regions include ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, a place along the coast of Barbury in its prosperous period, the Saracen Empire under the rule of Abbasid, and Spain under the rule of the Moors. It seems that the first cities in Europe to get rich by business were the cities in Italy.Italy at that time was the center of world civilization and represented the highest level of progress at that time.Although the Crusades that occurred at that time caused great property losses and resident casualties, hindering the development of most parts of Europe, they were extremely beneficial to the development of many cities in Italy.Because, in order to compete for the Holy Land, a large number of troops were sent from various places, and the transfer of these troops greatly supported the shipping industry of cities such as Venice, Genoa and Pisa.Even the Crusaders sometimes needed ships from these areas to deliver food.The shipping industry in these areas is simply the army's supply team.The Crusades, which cost the rest of Europe dearly, also made these democracies richer. Because rich people generally have vanity, merchants often transport manufactured goods and luxury goods to rich countries to meet their needs, thereby exchanging a large amount of rich land products from rich people.The greater part of the commerce in Europe at that time, therefore, was carried on in the exchange of the native produce of the country with the manufactures of the more civilized countries.The wool of England was frequently exchanged not only for the wine of France, but also for the fine cloth of Flanders; the corn of Poland was more widely exchanged for the wine and brandy of France, and sometimes for the French and Italian velvet. Driven by foreign trade, fine manufacturing has gradually become popular in some countries that have not yet established fine manufacturing.Once the hobby for refined products is popularized in the country, people's demand for refined products will increase greatly.At this time, in order to reduce transportation costs, merchants must have the idea of ​​​​establishing this kind of manufacturing industry in their own countries.Since the collapse of the Roman Empire, manufacturing industries have been established throughout Western Europe in order to reduce long-distance transportation costs. In this world, as long as it is a big country, it must have its own manufacturing industry, which we must pay attention to.However, by the manufactures of a great country I mean fine manufactures whose products are suitable for export.In every great country, most of the population's clothing and daily necessities are produced domestically.This is more often the case in poor countries, which are called to have no manufactures, than in rich ones, where manufactures are well developed.Compared with poor countries, a large part of the clothes and daily necessities of the inferior people in rich countries are foreign products. When the following two situations occur, a manufacturing industry suitable for export will emerge. The first kind, domestic merchants and entrepreneurs, sometimes, as mentioned above, will not hesitate to invest their capital in imitating certain foreign manufactures. Manufactures of this kind are the inevitable consequence of international commerce.For example, during the 13th century, the silk, cashmere and satin industries that prevailed in the Lucca region all belonged to this type of manufacturing industry.Later this manufacture was abolished by the cruel Castruccio. In 1310, the Lucca government expelled 900 families, 31 of which moved to Venice, and with the permission of various privileges of Venice, started a silk industry in Venice.When they first opened, they employed three hundred workers.Manufactures thus developed, and the cloth industry which was introduced to England in Elizabethan times, and the silk industry which is now at Lyon and Spotafil.In fact, the woolen industry first appeared in ancient Flanders, and then slowly expanded to England. As these manufactures are modeled after foreign countries, the materials used in them are also largely of foreign origin.In the early days of the establishment of the Venetian manufacturing industry, the required materials were also imported from Sicily and other places.Previously, Lucca had also completed the initial construction of its manufactures with foreign materials. Before the sixteenth century in northern Italy, people seemed to have no idea of ​​planting mulberry trees and raising silkworms.It was not until the time of Charles IX that the technology of planting mulberry and raising silkworms was introduced to France.At that time, Flanders mainly relied on importing wool from Spain and England to meet its manufacturing needs.Spanish wool, although not used in the original English woolen production, was widely used in the early export woolen industry.The silk now used in the manufactures of Lyon is also largely imported from abroad.In fact, almost all the silk used in the early development of Lyon's manufacturing industry was imported from abroad.The manufacturing of Spotafel probably never used materials that were not English.Since there are relatively few people who start this kind of manufacturing industry, and most of their purposes are to obtain their own interests, they often first consider their interests and temporary ideas before deciding whether to choose a seaside city or an inland location. city. The second type, the manufacture of household goods or crude manufactures, was gradually improved and eventually developed into a manufacture for export. It has been said, that even the poorest countries have manufactures, either of household manufactures, or crude manufactures.These two types of manufacturing industries can be gradually improved into real manufacturing industries.The materials used in the improvement were mostly produced in this country, generally far from the coast, and some even very far inland from the shipping routes.Because the soil in the interior is fertile and easy to cultivate, its products can not only maintain the life of the cultivator, but also have a lot of surplus.However, due to the inconvenient shipping in the interior and the high cost of land transportation, it is not easy to transport the surplus products to other places. Since the abundance of the land lowered the price of food, some workers decided to live there.In their view, the necessities and conveniences of life that can be obtained by labor there are more than in other regions.Furthermore, they can use locally produced materials as raw materials for production. After they make the materials into finished products, they can exchange for more materials and food.As they do not have to bear the cost of freight from the interior to rivers, coasts, or other distant markets, a greater surplus of produce is saved.It will thus be easier for the cultivators to obtain from the laborers what they want; besides, they can sell their surplus produce at a higher price, and at a lower price. Prices to buy other conveniences they need.In this case, the farmer is encouraged and able to further cultivate and improve the land, eventually adding more surplus produce.Manufacturing was born on fertile land, and its development in turn enhanced the productivity of the land.Initially, the manufacturing industry could only supply local needs, and after improvement, they could be exported to foreign markets.Because, when selling original products or crude products, it needs to pay land freight that these items themselves cannot afford, but refined products can contain a lot of price in a small volume, so there is no problem of not being able to afford the freight. A bolt of fine woolen cloth weighing only eighty pounds, for example, contains far more than eighty pounds of wool, and sometimes even buys thousands of pounds of corn to sustain the various workers and their employers.It must have been very difficult to transport such grains directly abroad; but if they were converted into refined forms, it would not be a great problem to transport them to the ends of the earth.Manufactures, which naturally developed in this manner, are more common in Leeds, Halifax, Sheffield, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, etc.This kind of manufacturing industry is the result of the development of agriculture. The promotion and improvement of modern European manufacturing industries are generally slower than those developed by foreign trade.Manufacturing is now thriving in all these places.More than a hundred years before these manufactures developed into manufactures for export, England was already world-renowned for its fine cloths, of which Spanish wool was the raw material. The extension and improvement of the first kind of manufactures went hand in hand with the development of agriculture; and the development of agriculture was the combined effect of foreign trade and manufactures, which were the immediate offspring of foreign trade.Below, I will elaborate on this.