ABSTRACT
The growth of extramural suburbs was accelerated in the Merovingian age, as shrines and cemeteries became centres of population. It is difficult to determine the extent to which merchants were part of the city elites of Merovingian Gaul. The economic base of city life was reoriented fundamentally in the Merovingian age. The bourgs of Merovingian Gaul are indistinguishable functionally from the later Wike of Germany. Until the ninth century burgus in northern Europe was used only in central France and the Loire and Saone areas. There is no consensus concerning the extent to which the Mediterranean-based commercial economy of late antiquity persisted into the Merovingian period. The roads of Gaul decayed in the Merovingian period, for the rivers, which were safer and could accommodate larger cargoes, became the major arteries of long-distance trade. In the Merovingian city, priests who lived from the yield of rural estates were basic factors.
