ABSTRACT
In the last chapter we looked at the rise of the merchant city. From 1400 to 1800 merchant cities were on the leading edge of economic and social change. The cultural achievements of cities such as Florence were built upon a vibrant trading economy and a dynamic banking center. Urban growth, in both its quantitative and qualitative terms, was built on trade and finance. Manufacturing played a part, as in the case of the Florentine cloth industry, but production was dominated by small-scale craft workers and limited production. A new engine of urban economic growth, industrial capitalism, developed around 1800 and it was embodied in a new urban form, the industrial city.
