ABSTRACT
THE beginning of urban life does not in itself require an elaborate explanation, as it was inevitable in all countries passing out of the primitive pastoral stage. Towns grew up naturally where there were fortifications, churches or markets and acquired certain rights of self-protection in the process. We can first speak of a town when a particular place forms a legal and administrative area for itself alone, when it is enclosed by walls, and when it has market rights and a special peace and obtains a special preference over the open country with regard to public burdens. Once an area was protected by walls it had the special peace of a fortified place; it became the natural residence of local potentates, a centre of jurisdiction and a market. Normally, new urban units easily found a place in the territorial organisation of the country and remained under the control of the Monarch or Prince responsible for government. The history of towns in England and, to a less extent, in France, Castille and Aragon illustrates a natural economic development of secondary political importance. In Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, where the central power was weak, the towns were able to achieve independence and, sometimes, to maintain and develop it so that it became, not local government, but collective sovereignty.
