The Italian cities had been overgovemed for centuries. After Pistoia passed into Florentine control in 1351 its government included at least thirty-seven separate bureaux. By the 1430s the tax burden per capita was triple the amount of the 1330s, as municipal income stabilised while population declined sharply.1 The much smaller northern cities were underfinanced and undergovemed when measured by this standard. They did not provide the range of services of their Italian counterparts. They may have been just as intensely regulated as the Italian cities but had fewer paid officials, relying more on the guilds to handle industrial policing that in Italy was a function of the municipal government.