ABSTRACT
The Roman towns had been primarily administrative centres: commerce and trade in Roman times were limited. In southern Europe many nobles lived in the old cities and this was an added reason for the rapidity with which commerce revitalized the towns of the Mediterranean area. The birth of the bourgeoisie was painful everywhere, even in the towns of southern France and of Italy, but nowhere was it more painful than in the northern homeland of feudalism. In Italy, in the towns of Tuscany and Lombardy, the German emperors did their best to maintain the position of their nominated bishops, but to no avail. A policy of beggar-my-neighbour was as far as the city councils could go and it proved crippling to the prosperity of many towns. The Flemish towns tried to prevent any manufacture of cloth in the adjoining country-side. Rivers and canals passing through towns enabled crippling tolls to be placed by the short-sighted burgesses on goods in transit.
