Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T13:04:22.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ports, plagues and politics: explaining Italian city growth 1300–1861

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2008

MAARTEN BOSKER ,
STEVEN BRAKMAN ,
HARRY GARRETSEN ,
HERMAN DE JONG  and
MARC SCHRAMM
MAARTEN BOSKER
Affiliation:
Utrecht School of Economics, Utrecht Universitym.bosker@econ.uu.nl
STEVEN BRAKMAN
Affiliation:
Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen
HARRY GARRETSEN
Affiliation:
Utrecht School of Economics, Utrecht Universitym.bosker@econ.uu.nl
HERMAN DE JONG
Affiliation:
Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen
MARC SCHRAMM
Affiliation:
Utrecht School of Economics, Utrecht Universitym.bosker@econ.uu.nl
Get access

Abstract

The evolution of city growth is usually studied for relatively short time periods. The rise and decline of cities is, however, typically a process that takes many decades or even centuries. In this article we study the evolution of Italian cities over the period 1300–1861. Using an existing data set, we perform panel estimations where the development of city size and urban patterns can be explained by various geographical, institutional and other determinants of city size for the period under consideration. Although large shocks such as the plague epidemics are clearly visible in the data, our baseline estimation results show that the main determinants of Italian city growth are physical geography and the predominance of capital cities. With respect to geography, being a seaport or having access to navigable waterways increases city size whereas a city's relative location, measured by its urban potential, is not significant. Being a capital city also increases city size. The estimation results reveal strong century-specific effects on city growth and these effects differ markedly between the North and South of Italy. Additional estimations show that these time effects can be linked to the political and institutional developmental changes over time in Italy. Our findings that the capital city bonus increases and non-capital cities suffer when the political power and the institutions of the state are more centralised corroborate the idea that institutions are a key factor in explaining Italian city growth.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review of Economic History , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , April 2008 , pp. 97 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S. and Robinson, J. (2005). The rise of Europe: Atlantic trade, institutional change, and economic growth. The American Economic Review 95 (3), pp. 546–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ades, A. F. and Glaeser, E. L. (1995). Trade and circuses: explaining urban giants. Quarterly Journal of Economics 110, pp. 195–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bairoch, P., Batou, J. and Chèvre, P. (1988). La population des villes européennes de 800 à 1850. Geneva: Librairie Droz.Google Scholar
Belfanti, C. M. (2001). Town and country in central and northern Italy, 1400–1800. In Epstein, S. R. (ed.), Town and Country in Europe, 1300–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 292–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beloch, K. J. (I.1937, II. 1961, III 1965). Bevölkerungsgeschichte Italiens, I. Grundlagen. Die Bevölkerung Siziliens und des Königreichs Neapel; II. Die Bevölkerung des Kirchenstaates, Toscanas und Herzogtümer am Po; III. Die Bevölkerung der Republik Venedig, des Herzogtums Mailand, Piemonts, Genuas, Corsicas und Sardiniens. Die Gesamtbevölkerung Italiens. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.Google Scholar
Black, Chr. F. (2001). Early Modern Italy: A Social History. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bosker, M., Brakman, S., Garretsen, H., de Jong, H. and Schramm, M. (2007). The development of Italian cities 1300–1861. CESifo Working Paper, no. 1893, CESifo, Munich.Google Scholar
Braudel, F. (1949, 1972). The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. London: William Collins Sons & Co.Google Scholar
Broadberry, S. N. and Gupta, B. (2006). The early modern great divergence: wages, prices and economic development in Europe and Asia, 1500–1800. Economic History Review 59 (1), pp. 2–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cipolla, C. M. (1981). Fighting the Plague in Seventeenth-Century Italy. Madison and London: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Cowan, A. (1998). Urban Europe 1500–1700. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Davis, D. R. and Weinstein, D. E. (2002). Bones, bombs and break points: the geography of economic activity. American Economic Review 92, pp. 1269–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Long, B. and Shleifer, A. (1993). Princes and merchants, European city growth before the Industrial Revolution. Journal of Law and Economics, pp. 671–702.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, S. R. (1993). Town and country: economy and institutions in late medieval Italy. The Economic History Review 46, pp. 453–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, S. R. (2000). Freedom and Growth: The Rise of States and Markets in Europe, 1300–1750. London: Routledge and LSE.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, S. R. (2001). Introduction. Town and country in Europe, 1300–1800. In Epstein, S. R. (ed.), Town and Country in Europe, 1300–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Federico, G. and Malanima, P. (2004). Progress, decline, growth: product and productivity in Italian agriculture, 1000–2000. The Economic History Review 57 (3), pp. 437–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fujita, M. and Mori, T. (1996). The role of ports in the making of major cities: self-agglomeration and hub-effect. Journal of Development Economics 49, pp. 93–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fujita, M. and Thisse, J-F. (2002). Economics of Agglomeration: Cities, Industrial Location and Regional Growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginatempo, M. and Sandri, L. (1990). L'Italia delle città. Il popolamento urbano tra Medioevo e Rinascimento (secoli XIII–XVI). Florence: Le Lettere.Google Scholar
Gordon, L. C., Feldman, M. and Gertler, M. S. (eds.) (2000). The Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hanlon, G. (2000). Early Modern Italy, 1550–1800: Three Seasons in European History. New York: St Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Hohenberg, P. M. (2004). The historical geography of European cities. In Henderson, V. and Thisse, J-F. (eds.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, vol. 4: Cities and Geography. Amsterdam: Elsevier North-Holland.Google Scholar
King, R. (1985). The Industrial Geography of Italy. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Krugman, P. (1991). Increasing returns and economic geography. Journal of Political Economy 3, 483–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krugman, P. (1996). The Self-Organizing Economy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Malanima, P. (1998a). Italian cities 1300–1800: a quantitative approach. Rivista di Storia Economica 14 (1), pp. 91–126.Google Scholar
Malanima, P. (1998b). L'urbanizzazione in Italia. Data set description. Istituto di Studi sulle Società del Mediterraneo.Google Scholar
Malanima, P. (2005). Urbanisation and the Italian economy during the last millennium. European Review of Economic History 9 (1), pp. 97–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malanima, P. (2006). An age of decline: product and income in eighteenth-nineteenth century Italy. Rivista di Storia Economica 22 (1), pp. 91–133.Google Scholar
Marin, B. (2001). Town and country in the kingdom of Naples, 1500–1800. In Epstein, S. R. (ed.), Town and Country in Europe, 1300–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 316–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marino, J. A. (2002). Early Modern Italy 1550–1796. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, J. C. (1972). Medieval Regions and their Cities. Newton Abbot: David & Charles.Google Scholar
Simon, H. (1955). On a class of skew distribution functions. Biometrica 42, pp. 425–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilly, C. (1990). Capital, Coercion, and European States. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
de Vries, J. (1976). The Economy of Europe in an Age of Crisis, 1600–1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vries, J. de (1984). European Urbanization 1500–1800. London: Methuen & Co.Google Scholar