ABSTRACT
The distribution of urban population by city-size categories as displayed in figure 6.1 is an unambiguous testimony that the relative importance of large and small cities was far from stable. It also suggests that these changes were far more dramatic in the 150 years before 1700 than in the 150 years thereafter. But figure 6.1 is silent about the sort of city creation or city growth which brought about the new distributions of urban population.
