ABSTRACT
In many cities, in fact, political and economic power were only partially linked, creating tensions and generating rivalries that rendered the elite far from cohesive. But there were also cities where members of a rentier elite tried to exclude merchants from political power and from recognition as their social equals. Parallel or overlapping elites were especially likely to emerge in cities which harboured more than one locus of political power. Usually when a city had two religiously defined elites, the groups were not equal in status, for no matter how well matched they might be in economic terms one religious group was likely to be shut out of the municipal government while the other would enjoy a monopoly of political power. Virtually every function of municipal government was to be carried out in this vast building, and every room was embellished with sculptures or paintings alluding in direct or allegorical terms to the specific service being provided there.
