ABSTRACT
In contrast to the one main theme dominating the interpretation of economic developments in the quarter-century after 1850, social trends need to be understood as more complex, with major areas worthy of note. One is the changing nature of urban life, as the number of people living in cities grew and the proportion of the population in urban areas increased. The quarter-century after 1850 was a period of urban growth in Europe. The proportion of the population living in urban areas increased between 1850 and the 1870s from 54-65 percent in England, 25-32 percent in France, 28-37 percent in Prussia. Such rapid and considerable population growth is very difficult to imagine as the result of natural population increase, especially as death rates in urban areas were generally higher than birth rates. The increase in urban population during the third quarter of the nineteenth century was only possible as the result of migration from the countryside.
