ABSTRACT
Generally speaking, the macro-analytical approach applied in this monograph has revealed several things. The first issue to be highlighted is the very nature of early modern urban change. It is most likely that an urban traveller in 1700 would have seen a similar picture of the city and urban society as would his predecessor in 1500. Outwardly, no significant changes in urban life had occurred or they were hardly visible to an external observer. In 1500 as in 1700, it was the city walls that were perceived as undisputed symbols of urbanity. More importantly, the chief urban institutions, such as the city councils, guilds and municipal law, retained their traditional structure and old medieval urban rituals and customs, such as those connected with the installation of new urban governments, were still kept alive as symbols of continuity and the city’s autonomous republican constitution. In most cases, however, they were increasingly nothing but a historical residue in the gradually changing social, political and economic environment of Europe around 1700.
