ABSTRACT
London was unique in its size, power and influence, and its rapid growth had taken it even further ahead of its nearest rivals. London depended heavily on those who attended the royal court, parliament and the lawcourts, and on their families and friends who came up for the social life that developed around them into the London 'season'. The pride, wealth and self-confidence of London's leading merchants, which were to be decisive in the political crises of the seventeenth century, were already strong. The fourfold classification into capital, provincial capitals, county centres and market towns, as its authors are the first to admit. The towns enjoyed an economic, social, political and religious importance out of all proportion to their size. The central government was undoubtedly preoccupied with problems of the urban economies between the 1530s and 1570s. The urban hierarchy was nearer to the medieval ranking than to that of the past two centuries.
