ABSTRACT
Features of local economic development and of the merchants' own perception of their status in society contributed to the interrelated processes of early commercialization and urban expansion. Both Paris and Hangzhou were administrative as well as commercial and intellectual centers. European centers during the centuries were just beginning to emerge from the decentralized, highly localized trade and communication patterns of the early feudal period. Prolonged fragmentation produced multiple centers of political authority, which themselves were always shifting with respect to one another. Consequently, Parisian leaders tended to put only a minimal infrastructure in place and depended instead on short-term solutions to water and sanitation problems. In China officials themselves were often ambivalent about their relationship with commercial wealth. The cultural life of Paris directly and unequivocally centered around the teachings of the Catholic Church.
