Medieval Urban and Agricultural Transformations
**Development of Intensive Crops**
The pressure of rural communities on their fields is not confined to the lands of cereal. Around the castles of Lazio, the outskirts are arranged in a concentric triple border: first, in the vicinity of the village, the gardens; then a specialized and intensive crop terrazzo; and finally, an extensive cerealicultura terrazzo for rainfed agriculture. Horticulture feeds short-range exchanges. The same goes for industrial crops such as hemp, flax, and especially pastel. The cultivation of the pastel requires rich soils and abundant labor but provides high yields.
In the thirteenth century, the expansion of viticulture began in the Mediterranean region in the tenth century.
The expansion of viticulture attests to two major developments in the agricultural economy. First, the fields move out of their isolation and integrate into a market economy. Second, agricultural intensification leads to new relationships. The case of viticulture is illustrative. First, the enrichment of wine allowed it to capture a form of freedom. The contract “complantatio” is associated with a man who gets the land and a farmer who plants the vineyard and works it. After a time, the vineyard is divided into two equal parts: one is for the Lord, and one for the grower. Wine is a culture of freedom. This culture helps to absorb population growth and the spread of wage labor.
**Urban Development**
The progressive control of rural and agricultural economic expansion are critical elements in the development of cities. In most Western cities, there has been a topographical continuity and permanence of artisanal and commercial functions. Their renewal is due to the cities being drained of agricultural production through taxation. Those who gave life to commerce—merchants and craftsmen—were local notables and children of notables, officials of the bishop, abbot, or lord of the castle, or from the farm environment. The topographic growth of the city is a polynuclear structural pattern: the centers of the primitive nucleus, as they grow the population and its activities, are surrounded by new neighborhoods outside the walls (villages), and over the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the new city space is unified by the surrounding walls. A drawing in the West is going urban network of unequal density. The expansion was earlier and more dense in Italy and Flanders. With the exception of Paris, in those two areas are located the largest cities in the West. The regions that lacked a city in the ancient past had a later expansion, based on earlier kernels of military or commercial importance. In the more or less Romanized areas, the development was uneven. In the south of France, there are many urban centers, although sparsely populated. North of the Loire, a less dense area, but with major cities, thanks to the wealth of the region, the presence of the royal court, and the prestige of the university, a large urban center developed.
**The City Within the Seigneurial Regime**
The vast urban sprawl is linked to the rural boom because it is essential that the fields produce marketable surpluses so they can develop cities that are centers of consumption. But the feudal system itself pushes in the same direction, since the city is also a center of trade and production, and as such constitutes a pole of exploitation of feudal dues. The medieval town is derived from the market. These new settlements develop in parallel to economic growth. The town can develop in the vicinity of a castle or a monastery. Often, this proliferation of villages caused the unfolding of ancient cities. There are numerous cases of bipolarity. The manor is a polynuclear city. Not only was the old urban fabric revitalized: the Middle Ages was the great age of the creation of cities. From the eleventh century, towns were born by the Lords, anxious to promote settlement and to capitalize upon the territory of their dominions. The phenomenon is widespread in the twelfth century. Even when there are foundations ex nihilo, cities display the sign of the feudal system. In fact, allodial neighbors are scarce in them, and urban land is encumbered with rights and justice census. In the cities, there is a mix of jurisdictions.
**Citizen Movement of Emancipation**
The years 1070-1120 correspond to the height of castrale Manor, in rural and urban areas. It is also a period when the first stirrings of protest against the power of the lords of the cities began. The interests of the merchant class are adversely affected by the increase in tolls and the increasing tax burden in the urban manor. The city’s liberation movement corresponds to a “normalization” of relations between the city and its masters. It was expressed in obtaining a letter of franchise, which gives the residents a special status and a number of freedoms. This process is similar to that developed in rural areas. The “urban freedoms” do not exclude the feudal system from the cities; by contrast, they are a means to keep it. In the cities of northern France, Flanders, and northern Italy are regions where the city boom was earlier and more thriving. Urban autonomy is achieved sometimes at the expense of an insurrection against the relevant Lord. More common are cases where a compromise is reached. It all depends on the balance of power: some privileges were bought from the Lord, others were seized.