ABSTRACT
Urban growth toward the end of the early modern period presents problems of interpretation no less difficult than those at its beginning. During the eighteenth century the urban hierarchy of England was turned upside down. The new industrial towns and port cities of the north and the midlands thrust their way past all rivals other than London. In any pre industrial community, agriculture is the dominant form of economic activity and the levels of productivity per head achieved in agriculture necessarily govern the growth opportunities of other industries. Here, changing agricultural productivity suggested by the course of urban growth in England, while also taking into account changes in the occupational structure of the rural component of the total population. The beneficial effects of urban growth on Dutch agriculture in promoting specialization and making it easier to achieve higher production per man and per farm reflect the same processes at work in Holland as London's growth produced in England.
