ABSTRACT
Within South Yorkshire and the West Midlands the development of large manufacturing cities was associated with decisive shifts in the equilibrium of social, economic and political power during the period 1830–70. However, the dominant tendencies were different in the two regions. In the West Midlands the shift was a lateral one, away from the county hierarchies of Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire and towards the municipal regimes of the cities, especially Birmingham. In Sheffield the disposition of power and initiative shifted away from the neighbourhood level of integration and towards the national level.
