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MEDIEVAL COMMUNE
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See also:MEDIEVAL See also:COMMUNE
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Under this See also:head it is proposed to give a See also:short See also:account of the rise and development of towns in central and western See also:continental See also:Europe since the downfall of the See also:Roman See also:Empire
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All these, including also the See also:British towns (for which, however, see See also:BOROUGH), may be said to have formed one unity, inasmuch as all arose under similar conditions, economic, legal and See also:political, irrespective of See also:local peculiarities
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Kindred economic conditions prevailed in all the former provinces of the Western empire, while new See also:law concepts were everywhere introduced by the Germanic invaders
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It is largely for the latter See also:reason that it seems advisable to begin with an account of the See also:German towns, the See also:term German to correspond to the limits of the old See also:kingdom of See also:Germany, comprising the See also:present empire, German See also:Austria, German See also:Switzerland, See also:
Most of these had never been entirely destroyed during the Germanic invasion
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Roman civic institutions perished; but probably parts of the See also:population survived, and small See also:Christian congregations with their bishops in most cases seem to have weathered all storms
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Much of the See also:city walls presumably remained See also:standing, and within them German communities soon settled
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In the zoth See also:century it became the policy of the German emperors to See also:hand over. to the bishops full jurisdictional and administrative See also:powers within their cities
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The See also:bishop hence-forward directly or indirectly appointed all See also:officers for the town's government
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The chief of these was usually the advocaius or See also:Vogt, some neighbouring See also:noble who served as the See also:proctor of the See also:
Besides, the inhabitants might be sued before the town court only, and to fugitives from the country who had taken See also:refuge in the town belonged a similar See also:privilege
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This special legal status probably arose from the towns being considered in the first See also:place as the See also: ' As to the towns as fortresses, see also F . Keutgen, Untersuchungen fiber den Ursprung der deutschen Stadtverfassung (Leipzig, 1895) ; and " Der Ursprung der deutschen Stadtverfassung " (Neue Jahrbiicher See also:fur das klassische Altertum, &c., N.F. vol. v.) . 4 See S . Rietschel, Markt and Stadt, and J . Fritz, Deutsche Stadtanlagen (See also:Strassburg, 1894).on the new towns in a more clearly defined See also:form from the beginning . An important difference lay in the mode of See also:settlement . There is See also:evidence that in the quondam Roman towns the German newcomers settled much as in a village, i.e. each full member of the community had a certain portion of arable land allotted to him and a See also:share in the See also:common . Their pursuits would at first be mainly agricultural . The new towns, on the other hand, general economic conditions having meanwhile begun to undergo a marked See also:change, were founded with the intention of establishing centres of See also:trade . Periodical markets, weekly or See also:annual, had preceded them, which already enjoyed the special See also:protection of the king's See also:ban, acts of violence against traders visiting them or on their way towards them being .subject to special See also:punishment . The new towns may be regarded as markets made permanent . The settlers invited were merchants (mercatores personati) and handicraftsmen .
The land now allotted to each member of the community was just large enough for a See also:house and yard, stabling and perhaps a small See also:garden (5o by zoo ft. at See also:Freiburg, 6o by roo ft. at See also:Bern)
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These See also:building plots were given as See also:free property or, more frequently, at a merely nominal See also:rent (Wurtzins) with the right of free disposal, the only See also:obligation being that of building a house
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All that might be required besides would be a common for the pasture of the burgesses' See also:cattle
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The example thus set was readily followed in the older towns
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The necessary land was placed at the disposal of new settlers, either by the members of the older agricultural community, or by the various churches
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The immigrants were of widely differing status, many being See also:serfs who came either with or without their lords' permission
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The See also:necessity of putting a stop to belated prosecutions on this account in the town court led to the See also:acceptance of the See also:rule that nobody who had lived in a town undisturbed for the term of a year and a day could any longer be claimed by a lord as his serf
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But even those who had migrated into a town with their lords' consent could not very well for See also:long continue in See also:serfdom
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When, on the other hand, certain bishops attempted to treat all new-comers to their city as serfs, the See also:emperor See also: (It was only after the See also:Renaissance that the town-council came to be styled See also:senate, and the burgomasters in Latin documents, consules.) As units of local ,government the towns must be considered as originally placed on the same legal basis as the villages, viz. as having the right of taking care of all common interests below the cognizance of the public courts or of those of their lord.5 In the towns, however, this right was strengthened at an early date by the See also:jus negotiate . At least as early as the beginning of the 11th century, but probably long before that date, See also:mercantile communities claimed the right, confirmed by the emperors, of settling mercantile disputes according to a law of their own, to the horror of certain conservative-minded clerics.s Furthermore, in the rapidly developing towns, opportunities for the exercise of self-administrative functions constantly increased . The new self-governing See also:body soon began to legislate in matters of local government, imposing fines for the 'See also:breach 2G. von Below, Die Entstehung der deutschen Stadtgemeinde (See also:Dusseldorf, 1889); and Der Ursprung der deutschen Stadtverfassung (Dusseldorf, 1892) . s F . Keutgen, Urkunden zur stadtischen Verfassungsgeschichle, No . 74 and No . 75 (See also:Berlin, 1901) . of its by-See also:laws . Thus it assumed a jurisdiction, partly concurrent with that of the lord, which it further extended to breaches of the peace . And, finally, it raised funds by means of an See also:excise-See also:duty, Ungeld (cf. the English malatolta) or Accise, Zeise . In the older and larger towns it soon went beyond what the bishops thought proper to tolerate; conflicts ensued; and in the 13th century several bishops obtained decrees in the imperial court, either to suppress the Rat altogether, or to make it subject to their nomination, and more particularly to abolish the Ungeld, as detrimental to episcopal finances . In the long run, however, these attempts proved of little avail . Meanwhile the tendency towards self-government spread even to the See also:lower ranks of town society, resulting in the establishment of craft-gilds . From a very early See also:period there is reason to believe merchants among themselves formed gilds for social and religious purposes, and for the furtherance of their economic interests . These gilds would, where they existed, no doubt also. See also:influence the management of town affairs; but nowhere has the Rat, as used to be thought, developed out of a gild, nor has the latter anywhere in Germany played a See also:part at all similar in importance to that of the English gild See also:merchant, the only exception being for a time the Richerzeche, or Gild of the Rich of See also:Cologne, from early times by far the largest, the richest, and the most important trading centre among German cities, and therefore provided with an See also:administration more complex, and in some respects more primitive, than any other . On the other hand, the most important commodities offered for sale in the market had been subject to See also:official examination already in Carolingia.n times . Bakers', butchers', shoemakers' stalls were grouped together in the market-place to facilitate See also:control, and with the same See also:object in view a master was appointed for each craft as its responsible representative . By and by these crafts or " offices " claimed the right of electing their master and of assisting him in examining the goods, and even of framing by-laws regulating the quality of the wares and the See also:process of their manufacture . The bishops at first resented these attempts at self-management, as they had done in the See also:case of the town council, and imperial legislation in their interests was obtained . But each craft at the same time formed a society for social, beneficial and religious purposes, and, as these were entirely in accordance with the wishes of the clerical authorities, the other powers could not in the long run be withheld, including that of forcing all followers of any craft to join the gild (Zunftzwang) . Thus the official inspection of markets, community of interests on the part of the craftsmen, and co-operation for social and religious ends, worked together in the formation of craft-gilds . It is not suggested that in each individual town the rise of the gilds was preceded by an organization of crafts on the part of the lord and his officers; but it is maintained that as a general thing voluntary organization could hardly have proceeded on such orderly lines as on the whole it did, unless the framework had in the first instance been laid down by the authorities: much as in modern times the working together in factories has practically been an indispensable preliminary to the formation of trade unions . Much less would the principle of forced entrance have found such ready acceptance both on the part of the authorities and on that of the men, unless it had previously been in full practice and recognition under the See also:system of official market-control . The different names for the See also:societies, viz. fraternitas, Bruderschaft, officiurn, Amt, condictum, Zunft, unio, Innung, do not signify different kinds of societies, but only different aspects of the same thing . The word Gilde alone forms an exception, inasmuch as, generally speaking, it was used by merchant gilds only) . From an early date the towns, more particularly the older episcopal cities, took a part in imperial politics . Legally the bishops were in their cities See also:mere representatives of the imperial government . This fact found formal expression mainly in two ways . The Vogt, although appointed by the bishop, received the " ban," i.e. the See also:power of having See also:justice executed, which he passed on to the lesser officers, from the king or emperor See also:direct . Secondly, whenever the emperor held a See also:curia generalis 1 F . Keutgen, Amter and Zunfte (See also:Jena, 1903) . (or general See also:assembly, or See also:diet) in one of the episcopal cities, and for a See also:week before and after, all jurisdictional and administrative power reverted to him and his immediate officers . The citizens on their part clung to this connexion and made use of it whenever their See also:independence was threatened by their bishops, who strongly inclined to consider themselves lords of their cathedral cities, much as if these had been built on church-lands . As early as 1073, therefore, we find the citizens of Worms successfully rising against their bishop in See also:order to provide the emperor Henry IV. with a refuge against the rebellious princes . Those of Cologne made a similar See also:attempt in 1074 . But a second class of imperial cities (Reichsstadte), much more numerous than the former, consisted of those founded on See also:demesne-land belonging either to the Empire or to one of the families who See also:rose to imperial See also:rank .
This class was largely reinforced, when after the extinction of the royal house of See also:Hohenstaufen in the 13th century, a See also:great number of towns founded by them on their demesne successfully claimed immediate subjection to the See also:crown
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About this time, during the See also:interregnum, a federation of more than a See also:hundred towns was formed, beginning on the Rhine, but spreading as far as See also:Bremen in the See also:north, See also:Zurich in the See also:south, and See also:Regensburg in the See also:east, with the object of helping to preserve the peace
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After the See also:death of King See also: But a considerable number survived until the reorganization of the Empire in 1803 . At the peace in 1815, however, only four were spared, namely, See also:Frankfort, Bremen, See also:Hamburg and See also:Lubeck, these being practically the only ones still in a sufficiently flourishing and economically independent position to See also:warrant such preferential treatment . But finally Frankfort, having chosen the wrong See also:side in the war of 1866, was annexed by See also:Prussia, and only the three seaboard towns remain as full members of the new confederate Empire under the See also:style of Freie and Hansestadte . But until modern times most of the larger Landstddte or See also:mesne-towns for all intents and purposes were as independent under their lords as the imperial cities were under the emperor . They even followed a foreign policy of their own, concluded See also:treaties with foreign powers or made war upon them . Nearly all the Hanseatic towns belonged to this See also:category . With others like Bremen, Hamburg and See also:Magdeburg, it was long in the See also:balance which class they be-longed to . All towns of any importance, however, were for a considerable time far ahead of the principalities in administration . 2 J . See also:Weizsacker, Der rheinische Bund (See also:Tubingen, 1879) . It was largely this fact that gave them power . When, therefore, from about the 15th century the princely territories came to be better organized, much of the raison d'etre for the exceptional position held by the towns disappeared . The towns from an early date made it their policy to suppress the exercise of all handicrafts in the open country . On the other hand, they sought an increase of power by extending rights of citizenship to numerous individual inhabitants of the neighbouring villages (Pfalburger, a term not satisfactorily explained) . By this and other means, e.g. the See also:purchase of estates by citizens, many towns gradually acquired a considerable territory . These tendencies both princes and lesser nobles naturally tried to thwart, and the mediate towns or Landstddte were finally brought to stricter subjection, at least in the greater principalities such as Austria and See also:Brandenburg . Besides, the less favourably situated towns suffered through the concentration of trade in the hands of their more fortunate sisters . But the economic decay and consequent loss of political influence among both imperial and territorial towns must be chiefly ascribed to inner causes . Certain leading political economists, notably K . See also:Bucher (Die Bevolkerung von Frankfurt a . M. See also:im 14ten and zgten Jahrhundert, i., Tubingen, 1886; Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft, 5th ed., Tubingen, 1906), and, in a modified form, W . Sombart (Der moderne Kapitalismus, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1902), have propounded the See also:doctrine of one See also:gradual progression from an agricultural state to modern capitalistic conditions . This theory, however, is nothing less than an See also:outrage on history . As a See also:matter of fact, as far as modern Europe is concerned, there has twice been a progression, separated by a period of retrogression, and it is to the latter that Biicher's picture of the agricultural and strictly protectionist town (the geschlossene Stadtwirtschaft) of the 14th and 15th centuries belongs, while Sombart's notion of an entire See also:absence of a spirit of capitalistic enterprise before the See also:middle of the 15th century in Europe north of the See also:Alps, or the 14th century in See also:Italy, is absolutely fantastic ?. The period of the rise of cities till well on in the 13th century was naturally a period of expansion and of a considerable amount of freedom of trade . It was only afterwards that a protectionist spirit gained the upper hand, and each town made it its policy to restrict as far as possible the trade of strangers . In this re-volution the rise of the lower strata of the population to power played an important part . The craft-gilds had remained subordinate to the Rat, but by-and-by they claimed a share in the government of the towns . Originally any inhabitant holding a certain measure of land, See also:freehold or subject to the mere nominal ground-rent above-mentioned, was a full See also:citizen independently of his calling, the See also:clergy and the lord's retainers and servants of whatever rank, who claimed exemption from See also:scot and See also:lot, to use the English See also:formula, alone excepted . The See also:majority of the artisans, however, were not in this happy position . Moreover, the town council, instead of being freely elected, filled up vacancies in its ranks by co-optation, with the result that all power became vested in a limited number of rich families . Against this state of things the crafts rebelled, alleging mismanagement, malversation and the withholding of justice . During the 14th and 15th centuries revolutions and See also:counter-revolutions, sometimes accompanied by considerable slaughter; were frequent, and a great variety of more democratic constitutions were tried . Zurich, however, is the only German place where a See also:kind of tyrannis, so frequent in Italy, came to be for a while established . On the whole it must be said that in those towns where the democratic party gained the upper hand an unruly policy abroad and a narrow-minded protection at See also:home resulted . An inclination to hasty See also:measures of war and an unwillingness to observe treaties among the democratic towns of See also:Swabia were largely responsible for the ' G. v .
Below, Der Untergang der mittelalterlichen Stadtwirtschaft; Ober Theorien der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung der Volker; F
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Keutgen, " Hansische Handelsgesellschaften, vornehmlich des 14ten Jahrhunderts," in Vierteljahrsschrift fur Sozial- and Wirtschaftsgeschichte, vol. iv
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(1906).disasters of the war of the Swabian League in the 14th century
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At home, whereas at first markets had been free and open to any comer, a more and more protective policy set in, traders from other towns being subjected more and more to vexatious restrictions
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It was also made increasingly difficult to obtain membership in the craft-gilds, high See also:admission fees and so-called masterpieces being made a See also:condition
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Finally, the number of members became fixed, and none but members' sons and sons-in-law, or members' widows' husbands were received
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The first result was the formation of a numerous proletariate of life-long assistants and of men and See also:women forcibly excluded from following any honest trade; and the second consequence, the economic ruin of the town to the exclusive See also:advantage of a limited number
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From the end of the 15th century population in many towns decreased, and not only most of the smaller ones, but even some once important centres of trade, sank to the level almost of villages
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Those cities, on the other hand, where the mercantile community remained in power, like See also:Nuremberg and the seaboard towns, on the whole followed a more enlightened policy, although even they could not quite keep clear of the ever-growing protective tendencies of the time
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Many even of the richer towns, notably Nuremberg, ran into See also:debt irretrievably, owing partly to an exorbitant See also:expenditure on magnificent public buildings and extensive fortifications, calculated to resist modern See also:instruments of destruction, partly to a faulty administration of the public debt
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From the 13th century the towns had issued (" sold," as it was called) annuities, either for life er for See also:perpetuity in ever-increasing number; until it was at last found impossible to raise the funds necessary to pay them
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One of the principal achievements of the towns lay in the See also: Their law was founded originally on the general See also:national (or provincial) law, on See also:custom, and on special privilege . New See also:foundations were regularly provided by their lord with a See also:charter embodying the most important points of the special law of the town in question . This See also:miniature See also:code would thenceforth be developed by means of statutes passed by the town council . The codification of the law of See also:Augsburg in 1276 already fills a moderate See also:volume in See also:print (ed. by Christian See also:Meyer, Augsburg, 1872) . Later foundations were frequently referred by their founders to the nearest existing town of importance, though that might belong to a different lord . Afterwards, if a question in law arose which the court of a younger town found itself unable to See also:answer, the court next See also:senior in See also:affiliation was referred to, which in turn would apply to the court above, until at last that of the See also:original See also:mother town was reached, whose decision was final . This system was chiefly developed in the colonial east, where most towns were affiliated directly or indirectly either to Lubeck or to Magdeburg; but it was by no means unknown in the home country . A number of collections of such judgments (Schoffenspruche) have been published . It is also See also:worth mentioning that it was usual to read the See also:police by-laws of a town at regular intervals to the assembled citizens in a See also:morning-speech (Morgenspraehe)2 To turn to Italy, the country for so many centuries in close political connexion with Germany, the foremost thing to be noted is that here the towns See also:grew to even greater independence, many of them in the end acknowledging no overlord whatever after the yoke of the German kings had been shaken off . On the other hand, nearly all of them in the long run fell under the sway of some local See also:tyrant-See also:dynasty . From Roman times the country had remained thickly studded with towns, each being the seat of a bishop . From this arose their most important peculiarity .
For it was largely due to an See also:identification of dioceses and municipal territories that the nobles of the surrounding country took up their headquarters in the cities, either voluntarily or because forced to do so by the citizens, who made it their policy thus to turn possible opponents into partisans and defenders
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In Germany, on the other hand,
2 On this whole subject see Richard See also:Schroder, Lehrbuch der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte (5th ed., Leipzig, 1907), § 56, " Die Stadt rechte." Also See also: |