Book III, Chapter III, 2

In countries such as France and England, where the sovereign's authority, though often very low, was never completely extinguished, the cities had no chance to become wholly independent. They did, however, become important enough that the sovereign could impose no tax upon them beyond the town's established farm rent without their consent. They were therefore asked to send deputies to the general assembly of the kingdom's estates, where they could join the clergy and the barons in granting the king extraordinary aid when the need was urgent. Since they were generally more favorable to his power, the king also seems sometimes to have used their deputies in these assemblies as a counterweight to the great lords. From this arose the representation of burghs in the estates-general of all Europe's great monarchies.

Order and good government, and with them individual liberty and security, were thus established in the cities while occupiers of land in the countryside remained exposed to every kind of violence. But people in such a defenseless condition naturally settle for the bare means of subsistence, since anything more they acquire might only tempt their oppressors' injustice. When secure in the enjoyment of the fruits of their industry, by contrast, they naturally put that industry to work to improve their circumstances, acquiring not merely the necessities but the comforts and refinements of life. Industry aimed at more than subsistence therefore took root in cities long before it became common among those who worked the land. If a poor cultivator oppressed by villeinage managed to accumulate a little stock, he would naturally hide it carefully from his master, to whom it would otherwise belong, and seize the first chance to flee to a town. At that time the law was so favorable to townspeople, and so eager to reduce the lords' power over rural people, that if he could evade his lord's pursuit there for a year, he became free forever. Thus whatever stock the industrious people of the countryside accumulated naturally sought refuge in cities, the only sanctuaries where it could remain secure in the hands of those who had acquired it.

A city's inhabitants must, it is true, ultimately draw their subsistence, and all the materials and means of their industry, from the country. But when a city stands near the seacoast or on a navigable river, its inhabitants need not draw these things only from the surrounding countryside. Their reach is much wider: they can obtain them from the farthest corners of the world, either in exchange for the manufactured products of their own industry or by serving as carriers between distant countries and exchanging the produce of one for that of another. Thus a city might attain great wealth and splendor while both its neighboring countryside and all the countries with which it traded remained poor and wretched. Each of those countries alone might supply only a little of either its subsistence or its employment; together, they could supply it abundantly with both. Within the narrow commercial world of those times, however, there were some rich and industrious countries. The Greek empire was such a country while it lasted, as was that of the Saracens under the Abassides. So too was Egypt until its conquest by the Turks, together with part of the Barbary coast and all the Spanish provinces under Moorish rule.

The cities of Italy seem to have been the first in Europe to attain considerable wealth through commerce. Italy stood at the center of what was then the developed and civilized part of the world. The crusades, moreover, while their enormous waste of stock and destruction of lives must have held back most of Europe, greatly favored the growth of certain Italian cities. The great armies marching from every quarter to conquer the Holy Land gave exceptional encouragement to the shipping of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa: sometimes by hiring their ships for transport there, and always by drawing on them for provisions. These cities were, so to speak, the armies' suppliers; and the most destructive frenzy ever to seize the nations of Europe became a source of wealth for these republics.

By importing the finer manufactures and costly luxuries of richer countries, the inhabitants of trading cities offered something to gratify the vanity of great landowners, who eagerly bought these goods with large quantities of the raw produce of their estates. Thus the trade of much of Europe in those days chiefly consisted in exchanging its own raw produce for the manufactured goods of more civilized nations. English wool, for example, was exchanged for French wine and the fine cloth of Flanders, just as Polish grain is now exchanged for French wines and brandies and for the silks and velvets of France and Italy.

Foreign trade in this way introduced a taste for finer and more sophisticated manufactures into countries where none were made. When that taste became common enough to create substantial demand, merchants naturally tried to establish manufactures of the same kind at home, to save the cost of carriage. This appears to have been the origin of the first manufactures for distant sale established in western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire.

It should be noted that no large country has ever existed, or could exist, without some kind of manufacture within it. When such a country is said to have no manufactures, this must refer to the finer and more sophisticated kinds, or those fit for distant sale. In every large country the clothing and household furnishings of the great majority of the people are products of their own industry. This is even more generally true of the poor countries commonly said to lack manufactures than of the rich ones said to abound in them. In the latter, one usually finds a far greater share of foreign products even in the clothes and household furnishings of the poorest people than in the former.

Manufactures fit for distant sale seem to have entered different countries in two distinct ways.

Sometimes they have arrived in the manner just described, through the vigorous intervention, so to speak, of the stocks of particular merchants and entrepreneurs who established them in imitation of similar foreign manufactures. These manufactures are therefore the offspring of foreign trade. Such appear to have been the ancient silk, velvet, and brocade manufactures that flourished in Lucca during the thirteenth century. They were driven from that city by the tyranny of one of Machiavel's heroes, Castruccio Castracani. In 1310, nine hundred families were expelled from Lucca. Thirty-one of them went to Venice and offered to introduce the manufacture of silk there. [See Sandi Istoria civile de Vinezia, part 2 vol. i, page 247 and 256.] Their offer was accepted; they received many privileges and began manufacturing with three hundred workers. So too, it seems, were the fine-cloth manufactures that once flourished in Flanders and were introduced into England at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign; and so are the present silk manufactures of Lyons and Spitalfields. Manufactures introduced in this way usually work with foreign materials, since they imitate foreign manufactures. When silk manufacturing first began in Venice, all its materials came from Sicily and the Levant. The older manufacture in Lucca likewise used foreign materials. Mulberry cultivation and silkworm breeding do not seem to have been common in northern Italy before the sixteenth century. These arts did not enter France until the reign of Charles IX. The manufactures of Flanders relied chiefly on Spanish and English wool. Spanish wool supplied not England's first woolen manufacture, but its first fit for distant sale. More than one half of the materials used in the Lyons manufacture today are foreign silk; when it was first established, all or nearly all of them were. No part of the materials used in the Spitalfields manufacture is ever likely to be produced in England. Since manufactures of this kind are usually introduced through the plans and projects of a few individuals, they may be established either in a seaport or in an inland town, as the interest, judgment, or whim of those individuals dictates.

At other times, manufactures for distant sale arise naturally and, as it were, of their own accord, through the gradual refinement of the household and coarser manufactures that exist even in the poorest and least developed countries. These manufactures generally work with materials produced in the country itself. They seem often to have first been refined and improved in inland districts at a considerable, though not immense, distance from the seacoast and sometimes even from all water transport. A naturally fertile inland district that is easily cultivated yields a great surplus of provisions beyond what is needed to sustain its cultivators. Because land carriage is costly and river navigation difficult, it may often be hard to send this surplus elsewhere. Its abundance therefore makes provisions cheap and encourages many workers to settle nearby, where they find that their labor can obtain more of the necessities and comforts of life than it could elsewhere. They work up the materials yielded by the land and exchange their finished products—or, what amounts to the same thing, the price received for them—for additional materials and provisions. They give fresh value to the surplus raw produce by saving the cost of carrying it to a waterside or distant market; and in exchange they supply the cultivators with things useful or agreeable to them on better terms than they could previously have obtained. The cultivators secure a better price for their surplus and can buy the other comforts they need more cheaply. They are thereby both encouraged and enabled to increase that surplus through further improvement and better cultivation of the land. Just as the land's fertility gave birth to manufacture, the progress of manufacture acts in turn upon the land and makes it more fertile still. Manufacturers first serve the neighborhood, and later, as their work becomes finer and more accomplished, more distant markets. For while raw produce and even coarse manufactures can scarcely bear the cost of carriage over any great distance by land, finer and more sophisticated manufactures can do so easily. A small bulk of such goods often contains the price of a great quantity of raw produce. A piece of fine cloth weighing only eighty pounds, for example, embodies the price not only of eighty pounds weight of wool but sometimes of several thousand weight of grain, consumed in sustaining the various workers and their immediate employers. Grain that could only with difficulty be shipped away in its original form is thus in effect exported in the form of finished goods, which can readily be sent to the farthest corners of the world. In this natural and almost spontaneous way arose the manufactures of Leeds, Halifax, Sheffield, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton. Such manufactures are the offspring of agriculture. In Europe's modern history, their expansion and improvement have generally followed those of the manufactures born of foreign trade. England was known for its fine cloth made from Spanish wool more than a century before any of the manufactures now flourishing in the towns just named were fit for foreign sale. The growth and improvement of these latter could occur only as a consequence of the growth and improvement of agriculture—the last and greatest effect of foreign trade and of the manufactures it directly introduced. I shall now explain how this came about.

In countries such as France and England, the ruler's authority was often very weak but never disappeared entirely. Cities there had no chance to become fully independent. They did, however, become powerful enough that the ruler could not tax them beyond the town's fixed rent without their consent. So they were asked to send representatives to the general assembly of the kingdom's estates. There they could join the clergy and barons in granting the king extra help when the need was urgent. Their representatives also seem sometimes to have served as a counterweight to the great lords in these assemblies, since townspeople generally favored the king's power more than the lords did. This is how burghs came to be represented in the estates-general of Europe's great monarchies.

Cities gained order and good government, along with personal freedom and safety, while people working the land in the countryside were still exposed to every kind of violence. People who cannot defend themselves naturally settle for the necessities of life. Getting more might only tempt their oppressors to take it. But when people are sure they can keep the fruits of their work, they naturally work harder to improve their condition and obtain not just necessities but comforts and finer things too. So work aimed at producing more than a bare living took root in cities long before it was common among people working the land. If a poor cultivator held in villeinage managed to build up a little stock, he would carefully hide it from his master. Otherwise it would belong to that master. At the first opportunity he would flee to a town. The law then favored townspeople and sought to reduce the lords' power over rural people. If he could hide from his lord's search in a town for a year, he would be free forever. Thus any stock built up by hardworking people in the countryside naturally fled to cities. These were the only safe havens where the people who had acquired it could keep it.

Of course, a city's people must ultimately get their food, all the materials for their work, and the means of doing it from the countryside. But a city on the coast or beside a navigable river does not have to get these things from nearby farmland. Its reach is much wider. It can get supplies from the farthest parts of the world in exchange for goods its people make, or by carrying goods between distant countries and exchanging one country's products for another's. In this way, a city might become rich and splendid while both its neighboring countryside and every country it traded with remained poor and miserable. Each of those countries on its own might supply only a little of the city's food or work, but together they could supply plenty of both. Even within the limited trade of those days, however, some countries were wealthy and industrious. The Greek empire was one as long as it lasted, and so was the Saracens' empire under the Abassides. Egypt was another until the Turks conquered it, as were part of the Barbary coast and all the provinces of Spain governed by the Moors.

Italy's cities seem to have been Europe's first cities to become substantially wealthy through trade. Italy stood at the center of what was then the developed and civilized part of the world. The crusades also greatly benefited some Italian cities. By wasting so much stock and killing so many people, they must have slowed progress in most of Europe. But the great armies marching from every region to conquer the Holy Land gave Venice, Genoa, and Pisa's shipping an extraordinary amount of business. Their ships sometimes carried the armies there, and always supplied them with provisions. The cities acted, so to speak, as the armies' suppliers. The most destructive frenzy ever to seize Europe's nations thus made those republics wealthy.

Trading cities imported well-made goods and costly luxuries from richer countries. These appealed to the vanity of great landowners, who eagerly bought them with large amounts of the unprocessed produce of their estates. As a result, much of Europe's trade at the time involved exchanging its own raw produce for the manufactured goods of more developed nations. For example, English wool was exchanged for French wines and fine cloth from Flanders. In the same way, Polish corn today is exchanged for French wines and brandies, and for silks and velvets from France and Italy.

Foreign trade thus brought a taste for finer, better-made goods to countries that did not produce them. Once enough people wanted these goods to create substantial demand, merchants naturally tried to save transport costs by establishing similar manufactures at home. This is how the first manufactures in western Europe that produced goods for distant markets seem to have begun after the fall of the Roman empire.

It is important to note that no large country has ever lived, or could live, without making some goods. When people say such a country has no manufactures, they must mean that it has no finer, more sophisticated ones, or none suitable for sale in distant markets. In every large country, the clothing and household furnishings of most people are made by their own labor. This is even more consistently true in poor countries commonly said to have no manufactures than in rich countries said to have many. Among the poorest people of a rich country, both clothing and household furnishings generally include a much greater share of foreign goods than they do in a poor country.

Manufactures that can produce for distant markets seem to have arisen in different countries by two different routes.

Sometimes they arose as described above: particular merchants and business organizers used their stock to set them up in imitation of similar foreign manufactures. This was, so to speak, a forceful intervention. These manufactures grew out of foreign trade. That seems to be the origin of the old silk, velvet, and brocade manufactures that flourished in Lucca during the thirteenth century. One of Machiavel's heroes, Castruccio Castracani, drove them away through his tyranny. In 1310, nine hundred families were forced out of Lucca. Thirty-one went to Venice and offered to establish silk manufacture there. [See Sandi Istoria civile de Vinezia, part 2 vol. i, page 247 and 256.] Venice accepted their offer and gave them many privileges. They began manufacturing with three hundred workers. The fine-cloth manufactures that once flourished in Flanders seem to have had a similar origin, as did those introduced into England at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign. So do the silk manufactures now found in Lyons and Spitalfields. Manufactures introduced in this way generally use foreign raw materials, because they imitate foreign manufactures. When silk manufacture first began in Venice, all its materials came from Sicily and the Levant. Lucca's older manufacture also used foreign materials. Growing mulberry trees and raising silkworms seem not to have been common in northern Italy before the sixteenth century. These practices did not reach France until the reign of Charles IX. The Flanders manufactures mainly used Spanish and English wool. Spanish wool supplied not England's first woolen manufacture, but its first one fit for distant sale. Today, more than one half of the silk used by the Lyons manufacture comes from abroad; at first, all or nearly all of it did. None of the materials used in Spitalfields is ever likely to come from England. Since these manufactures usually begin as plans devised by a few individuals, they may be established in a seaport or an inland town, depending on the interests, judgments, or whims of their founders.

At other times, manufactures for distant sale develop naturally, almost on their own. Household production and the making of coarser goods, which take place even in the poorest and least developed countries, gradually become more skilled and refined. Manufactures that arise this way generally use local materials. They often seem to have first improved in fertile inland areas, a considerable though not an enormous distance from the coast, and sometimes from any water transport. An inland district with fertile land that is easy to cultivate produces far more food than its farmers need to live on. But the cost of moving goods by land and the difficulty of river transport can make it hard to send the surplus elsewhere. Abundant food is therefore cheap. This draws many workers to the area, where their labor can buy them more necessities and comforts than elsewhere. They turn locally produced materials into finished goods and exchange their work, or the payment they receive for it, for more materials and food. Their work gives new value to the surplus raw produce by removing the need to carry it to a waterfront or distant market. In return, they offer the farmers useful or pleasing goods on better terms than the farmers could have obtained before. Farmers receive a better price for their surplus and can buy other comforts they need more cheaply. They are therefore both encouraged and able to produce a still larger surplus by improving and cultivating their land more carefully. The land's fertility gave rise to manufacturing, and manufacturing in turn increases its fertility further. At first manufacturers supply their neighbors. As their work improves, they supply more distant markets. Raw produce and even coarse manufactured goods can hardly bear the high cost of a long journey overland, but finer goods easily can. A small volume of them often holds the value of a large quantity of raw produce. A piece of fine cloth weighing only eighty pounds, for example, has a price that covers not only eighty pounds weight of wool but sometimes several thousand weight of corn. That corn supported the various workers and their immediate employers. It would have been difficult to ship the corn itself abroad, but its value is effectively exported in the finished cloth, which can easily reach the farthest parts of the world. This is how manufacturing arose naturally, almost on its own, in Leeds, Halifax, Sheffield, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton. These manufactures grew out of agriculture. In modern European history, they generally spread and improved later than manufactures born of foreign trade. England had been known for fine cloth made with Spanish wool for more than a century before any manufactures that now thrive in the towns just named were suitable for foreign sale. The latter could only expand and improve after agriculture expanded and improved. That development was the final and greatest effect of foreign trade and of the manufactures it immediately brought about, as I shall now explain.