Early Modern City: economy and social life

Towards the end of Mediterrenean leadership New urbanization cycles and the transformation of cities hierarchy. The discovery of America and its consequences. The shift from Mediterrenean to Western and Northern Europe. Urban development and political instability. Warfare and its effects.

Economic recovery Demographic increase and agricultural production. The issue of food supply. The international grain trade. The regulation of relation between city and countryside. Investment in landownership. Villa rustica.

Immigration and social control The impact of immigration. Ethnic movement. Jews and Muslims. A greater polarization of the social hierarchy but a persistence of a mixed use of urban space. Social control. Deterioration of marginal groups status.

Western Europe hegemony The rise of Dutch and English cities. The development of Atlantic trading. A widespread urban decline in many other areas: natural disasters, disease, warfare. Antwerp and Amsterdam as leading cities. Banking, commerce, cultural life. A new urban modernity?

Economic transformations Manufacturing, trading and State control. The importance of Atlantic ports. Growing fiscal levies on the city. The role of luxury and fashionable consumer goods. Printing industry. The development of service sector.

Mortality and Poverty Mortality and immigration: the outbreaks of bubonic plague. The women’s movement to the big city. Discipline function of neighbourhood. Centralized relief agencies. A new idea of poverty.

Urban revival Second half of XVIII century: demographic increase and economic development. Agriculture and proto- industry. Specialist industrial centres, Atlantic ports, leisure towns and spa towns. The creation of urbanized Europe. A central role for England. The effects of the French Revolution.

The rise of capital cities The relationship between State-nation and capital city. Wealthy elites and polarized society. The importance of central spaces of capital cities. Social segregation. The consolidation of a metropolitan culture. Consumer patterns, club and societies, leisure activities.

London. Regent Street

London. Portland Place, 1796