nature of city

7/24/2019 Nature of City

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NATURE OF THE CITY

Shraddha Bahirat

2012 MUD 005

The author tries to explain the typical characters that help in defning the citythrough this chapter. He explains it by describing the economic character,agricultural relation o the city, political and administrative concept, and therelation o ortress and markets which defnes a city.

ECONOMIC CHARACTER OF THE CITY: MARKET SETTLEMENT

While describing the economic character o the city the author explains thatthrough all the defnitions o city one thing has always been common that a cityis a closed settlement consisting o a collection o one or more separatedwellings.It oten represents a locality and dense settlement o dwellings orming a colony

so extensive that the social interaction between the inhabitants is lacking,however this lack o interaction is also inuenced by various cultural actors. Insome o the old localities this impersonality was absent altogether even i itpossessed the entire characteristic to be defned as a city. The author urtherstells that si!e alone cannot defne a city." city can be defned on basis o economy as ollows# " settlement, theinhabitants o which live primarily o$ trade and commerce rather thanagriculture. Hence economic versatility is the most important to defne anysettlement as a city.

This economic versatility can be established in two ways presence o eudalestate or market.However he urther clarifes that not every market converted the locality in whichit was ound into a city. "nd in the meaning employed here the %city& is a marketplace where the local inhabitants satisy economically considerable part o theirdaily wants in local market. Hence local market orms the economic centre o thecolony where the need o the urbanites and non'urbanites are satisfed. Themarket possessed centres o both kind(s oikos and markets in addition to regularmarket it also served as periodic oreign markets or travelling merchants. Thecapitalist establishment o city was re)uent in medieval rontier. The city couldbe a pure market place without any attachment or dependency on the court o aprince or without princely concessions.

TYPE OF CONSUMER AND PRODUCER CITY

The author in this section tries to classiy city based on its economicestablishment he explains the %*onsumer city and +roducer *ity& where hedefnes the both as ollows#

*onsumer city' *ity depends upon patrimonial and political incomes whichsupply the purchasing power o large consumers. The kind and source o theincome o such larger consumers may be o )uite varied type. +urchasing powercan depend upon state pension or other state rents. ne can describe an urbanorm as a %consumer city& i there is presence o large consumers o specialeconomic character and is o decisive economic importance or the local

tradesman and merchants.+roducer city'


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Increase in population and purchasing power in city may be due to location thereo actories, or home' work industries, manuacturers supplying outsideterritories. "nd the consumers or the local market are residents orentrepreneurs workers and cratsmen who orm the great mass where themerchants are supported indirectly by the workers and cratsmen.*ommercial *ity' Trade and merchant city conronted by consumer city rests onthe retail or proft o oreign product on the local market where the purchase ooreign products and their sale is with or without storage at place to the outside.

The purchasing power and tax ability o the city depends on the local economicestablishment as was also the case producers( city in contrast with theconsumers- city. The author tells that today more than ever beore a predominantpart o the earning o frms ow to localities other than the place o earning anda business proceeds are not consumed by their rightul receivers. "nd parallelwith these development %city' town& or %city district& consisting exclusively obusiness establishment are arising.The actual cities nearly represented mixedtype o economic establishment and i they are to be classifed economically itmust be in terms o their prevailing economic component

RELATION OF THE CITY TO ARICULTURE

The author eels that the relation between agriculture and city was never beenclearly defned due to existence o %semi' rural cities % where localities serving asplace o typical urban trade also has residents satisying large part o their oodneed through cultivation on their land and even producing surplus or sale.ormally a large city does not provide this opportunity to its residents and todaya typical %urbanite& is a man who does not supply his own ood on his ownland .*ontrary was the case or the ma/ority o typical ancient cities. Whereas inthe 0edieval period agricultural property was retained in the hands o merchant

strata.The relation o the city as agent o trade and commerce to the land as producero ood comprises one aspect o the %urban economy& and orms a special%economic stage& between the household economy on one hand and %nationaleconomy& on the other. Thus the "uthor conclude the section by saying that onlythe satisaction o agriculture happens in closed settlement and agriculturalproduction appears in relation to non'agricultural ac)uisition and when thepresence or absence o market constitutes the di$erence we are defning small'market towns, but not cities.

THE POLITICO!ADMINSTRATI"E CONCEPT OF THE CITY

*ities o past were di$erentiated by kind o regulations which were botheconomic and administrative in nature. The economic regulation o the so calledurban economic policy neither in past or in present was ully developed. Itemerged only under the political regime o the guild and economic regulationwas not the sole ob/ect o the urban economy in the past. "ccording to thedistinction in urban economy and economic policies we are led to the concept o%urban economic area& and %urban area& and %urban authority& which indicatesthat the concept o %city& must be studied in terms o series o concept otherthan the purely economic categories. Hence political concepts orm anotherseries through which a city can be analysed. Hence it is observed that the urbaneconomic policies were the work o a prince it was made or the inhabitants othe city but was not made by them. " locale can be held to be a city in apolitical'administrative sense though it would not )ualiy as a city economicallythe example o which can be seen in the 0iddle "ges where ma/ority o people


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earned their livelihood rom agricultural activities in what can be termed legallyas %cities&. However the transition rom such semi'rural cities to consumers(producers( or commercial cities is )uite uid.

FORTESS AND ARRISONS

In past the cities were ortifed1 the concept which is entirely lost now. The peopleliving outside this ortifcation or urban walls were called as rural workers.However it was not only the cities that were ortifed1 ortifcation were made ormilitary and even disputed rontiers o territories and during wars every villageortifed itsel. *onstruction o castle and ortifcation was seen all over the worldrom western countries like 2urope to 2gypt, India, *hina, and 0esopotamia.3imilarly walled hill retreats were di$used throughout the world rom Isarelite2ast 4ordan to 5ermanic territories. 2ven economically rural localities which werenot cities in administrative sense possessed ortifcations.6uring the "nglo'3axon period belonging to each shire paid guards and vassalsin pieces o land or maintaining a permanent garrison during normal times thus

there was a gradual transition rom the permanently garrisoned ortress to the"nglo'3axon burgh the %5arrison' *ity& with burgess as inhabitants. The manorialcastle was a ortress occupied by the lord and warriors together with amilies.

Thus it was not only cities that were ortifed1 ortifcations were done or variousother purposes too 2g# 0ilitary *astle construction. "nd the disposal o a castleoriginally signifed military dominion over the country.

THE CITY AS THE FUSION OF FORTESS AND MARKET

7elation between the garrison o the political ortress and civil economic

population is complicated but always important or the composition o the city.6uring the development o a ortifed city into a special political orm it wasincorporated or dependant on the *astle or the ruling power. These noblesresided in the *astle or maintained garrisons. Inact in 5reece and 7ome thesenoble men held city houses in addition with rural castle.

The politically oriented castle and economically oriented market, with marketarea serving sometimes serving both purposes oten stand in plastic dualismbeside one other. However the military drill feld and economic market area arenot everywhere spatially separated. 2.g. *omitium and *ampus 0aritus were separated rom economic 8ora in7ome. "lso in 3outhern India political city o notable men is separated butappears alongside economic city. The consumption power or purchasing power o

the ortifed nobles and military households and protection provided by themattracted merchants. This interested the lord as he was in position to procuremoney through taxes1 at times he monopoli!ed commerce and trade. In maritimecities the economic interest o resident military amilies ourished as carryingtrade was easily controlled, this /eopardi!ed to some extent the monopoly ochietain and oten the +rince was considered only to be % primus inter pares& inthe ruling circle or even simply as e)ual and oten he was elected or a veryshort time having limited powers. It was during this time yearly municipalcouncils gradually appeared. 2thnicity and religion too played an important roleas during this time competition arose between priest o the temple and priestlylord o the city as temple districts o$ered protection to ethnic elements. Thus a

city like' settlement, economically supplied by temple revenues evolvedattaching itsel to a temple district. Hence to variety o possible development o


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economy was inuenced by political' militaristic structure o the dominatinggroup within which the ounding o the city or its development occurred.

ASSOCIATIONAL AND STATUS PECULARITIES OF THE OCCIDENTAL CITY

In this section the author describes why a city rom the oriental world cannot bedescribed or defned as a city when compared with the cities o occidental world.

The author says that neither %city& in economic sense nor the garrisonnecessarily constitute a %community&. He eels that an urban community in ullmeaning o world can only be ound as a general phenomenon in occidentalworld only1 as to constitute a ull urban community a settlement must display arelative predominance o trade' commercial relations with settlement as a wholedisplaying the ollowing eatures.

9. " ortifcation:. " market;. " court o its own or partially autonomous law

nature of city

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