ABSTRACT
The concern of economic regulations for the rights of burgesses as consumers and manufacturers had its costs. It created institutionalized conflicts of interest both within towns and between them. To the extent that urban authorities discriminated directly against external suppliers and merchants, they hampered the integration of markets and the development of enterprise in basic commodities. One source of challenge resulted from the extension of royal authority through the formulation and sanctioning of national regulations by the crown. The early standardization of weights, measures and currency, and grants of freedom from toll, to some extent offset the self-serving character of urban regulations. A fourth challenge to the urban autarchic ethic was its by-passing and undermining by various forms of external commercial enterprise. The formation of unlicensed markets beyond the control of urban authorities was one such development, perhaps most commonly observed after 1400.
