Introduction to Urban

and Regional Studies

Sessions 21-22
THE ECONOMIC
DISTRICT
What are
we lookin
g at?
 age Plot
The Burg
MARKET TOWNS (pp92-93)

“[In the pre-industrial world…] the simplest case for

the environment of trade is the unwalled town that
was born or created exclusively for the exchange of
goods. Market towns were, by their nature, small: if
they prospered and grew, they also diversified.

[…] Often there was nothing to these towns but a

string of houses along a single, wide street
expanding in the middle—the marketplace itself.

[…] In China market towns developed around

temples, the manors of landowners and merchants,
and around manufacturing facilities, like ceramics
works. They also materialized at important
transport nodes like bridges and the crossing of
waterways, and where a resident working
population at a military camp or an arsenal
attracted them. […] Many never amounted to
anything more than a handful of houses and a few
shops.

[…] In Tudor and Stuart England there were about

760 market towns, 50 more in Wales. […] The towns
came at intervals of every few miles, and were
centers of distribution and sale of agricultural
produce. The towns also possessed shambles,
where fish and flesh were sold, and shops with
wooden pentices in front stretching out several feet s.
age plot
into the street. Under this projection, shoemakers it y, an d the burg
he linear
and tailors sat at trestle tables, and worked under , E n glan d. Note t
n
Campde
the public eye.” (pp92-93) Chipping
 n, circa 19th C
frontier tow
“Wild West ”
HOUSING FOREIGN MERCHANTS
(pp93-94)

“We should […] distinguish between retail

trade and wholesale trade. The first was by
and large a center-city phenomenon; it
was in the open market of the town, and
in shops along streets that emanate from
it, that the townspeople bought staples
and products of local craft. Special goods—
spices and wine and luxury items of
various sorts—came from overseas
through the agency of merchants who
traveled across the country along
protected routes. The exchange took place
outside the walls, before the city gates; or
in specially designated areas within, where
the foreigners who managed long-distance
commerce found a home away from
home. (p93)

Likely Kostof is talking more about domestic v imported

here, as opposed to quantity (which wholesale implies)
Plan of Avola (18th C)
THE MARKET AND THE STATE (pp94-96)
THE ENVIRONMENT OF TRADE (pp96-98)

“[The State] supervised where and

when business would be conducted,
and by who. Government maintained a
strict monopoly on precious
commodities like salt and silk; it
determined and controlled measures
and weights. It regulated guild activity,
and set rates for tolls and taxes. […] The
fact is that unless regulated, merchants
will appropriate any public space for
their purposes. […] In the inner city, a
central open space was traditionally set
aside for the conduct of business—
whether it is the Greek agora, the
Roman forum, or the medieval
marketplace.

[…] The town hall […] open arcaded

ground floor […] a ‘common beam,’
with the accompanying weights and
measures […] the market belfry [and
clock] […] a merchants’ hall […] a salt
house (since the town held a monopoly u see ?
of this substance) […]” (pp94-97). What do yo
Plaza Mayor (Segovia) (ca 1920s-30s)
THE MARKET AND THE STATE (pp94-96)
THE ENVIRONMENT OF TRADE (pp96-98)

“[The State] supervised where and

when business would be conducted,
and by who. Government maintained a
strict monopoly on precious
commodities like salt and silk; it
determined and controlled measures
and weights. It regulated guild activity,
and set rates for tolls and taxes. […] The
fact is that unless regulated, merchants
will appropriate any public space for
their purposes. […] In the inner city, a
central open space was traditionally set
aside for the conduct of business—
whether it is the Greek agora, the
Roman forum, or the medieval
marketplace.

[…] The town hall […] open arcaded

ground floor […] a ‘common beam,’
with the accompanying weights and
measures […] the market belfry [and
clock] […] a merchants’ hall […] a salt
house (since the town held a monopoly
clo se d ma rket…
of this substance) […]” (pp94-97). Ty p ica lly
Plaza Mayor (Segovia) (ca 1920s-30s)
THE ENVIRONMENT OF TRADE (pp96-98)

“[…] current research is suggesting that we may

have placed too much faith in toponymy. The
tidy functional array of trades might have been
reflective more of the wishes of town
government […] than of reality.

[…] What is more certain is that during the

Middle Ages, especially in northern Europe, the
functional specialization of districts was
connected to guilds. Members tended to live
within the precinct of the guildhall. Guildsmen
alone could occupy shops; foreigners and others
could trade only in the open marketplace.

[…] [The concerns of guilds] were the

maintenance of a monopoly over their own
economic activity; […] the welfare of members;
arbitration in internal disputes; and
representation in public ceremonies.

n to wns…
[…] The system of guilds […] could also be a
ol b etwee
stifling social device. Many new towns in the ve to
om p etiti
Middle Ages and later lured merchants and
e rge s as c
artisans with assurances of a ‘free’ market.
rket ” em
ma
“Free District, not street based clustering
Toponymy – the study of place names
Garment District NYC, unions, same discussion?
HOUSING FOREIGN MERCHANTS
(pp93-94)
“In the Middle Ages, urban
territoriality was exceedingly
important to foreign groups.
These were called ‘nations,’ and
what they needed was places in
which to worship, to warehouse
goods, and to arbitrate their own
disputes so as not to be bound by
local authority—which meant
consulates. “Nations” were trade
associations and social clubs in
one; membership was obligatory.
For the necessary interaction of
merchants and bankers, a place of
exchange was often provided. […]
there was [also] the matter of
housing. Separate districts for
foreign merchants were intended
to insulate the local citizens from
unfamiliar customs and habits. ”
(p94)
What do you think?
Hanseatic League, own quarters / nations in several cities.
12th-15th C, approx. 200 cities at height.
 a (Italy),
Horreum in Osti st AD
circa 1 C,

d in Rome
several hundre
multiple years
Supplies to last
ation to feed
Municipal oblig
 Les Miserables (1998)
What comes with increase in production?
THE MARKET AND THE STATE (pp94-96)
THE ENVIRONMENT OF TRADE (pp96-98)

“London’s authorized markets—as

distinct from informal street markets
initiated by vendors known as
costermongers—were nearly all
established by royal charter. […] By the
early 19th century London could boast
an impressive array of specialized
marketplaces […] for grain […] for
livestock […] for meat […] for fish […]
for vegetables […]

[…] Hygienic conditions in halls used for

the sale and storage of foodstuffs were
appalling by today’s standards. […] A
Napoleonic campaign for sanitary
markets transformed the building type
in France at the start of the 19th
century; the Market and Fair Clauses
Act of 1847 did the same for England.
The great glass and iron market
structures of the latter half of the
century were the result.” (pp96-97).
Costermonger – seller of goods (esp. fruit and veg) from a
handcart on the street
Les Halles Market (Paris, France) (circa late 19th C)
Why this time period? Cities, industrial revolution, what are
we seeing?
Victor Baltard’s Les Halles Market (Paris, France) (circa late 19th
C, demolished 1970s)
THE CASE OF ISLAM (p99)
“The classic locus of trade was the linear market system called the suq or bazaar. The
suq is organized strictly by categories of business, and almost all are encompassed
except the selling of fresh food stuffs and livestock, which is done out of doors. […] The
bazaar complex contained, besides secure strongrooms and occupational suqs,
hammams (baths), khans or caravanserais for the traveling merchant, inner mosques,
and fountains. The Kapali Carsi (covered market) in Istanbul, for example, had 60
streets, over 3,300 shops, 20 khans, a fountain for ritual ablutions, several small
mosques, two bedestens [separate secure building for precious textiles], and even an
open public place or maidan. […] These non-residential business premises, then, were
in reality total social entities.” (p99)

text
Kapalicarsi, Istanbul (15th-17th C major construction)
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“The triumphant installation of a
THE BUSINESS
commercial urban DISTRICT OF
core was nowhere
CAPITALISM
more (pp99-102)
pronounced than in the American
city. As the middle- and upper-middle
class residential component withdrew
to quieter sectors further out, their
premises were appropriated by
business or taken over by those lower
down on the social scale. What had
been the town itself in the earlier days
was transformed into an intense and
more and more exclusive pagus
mercatorum, with single-purpose
concentrations like a financial district, a
specialty shopping district, and an
administrative district.

The phenomenon of the CBD, the

central business district, should not be
taken for granted, however familiar it
has since become.

[…] the passage […] to one of these

Western configurations is not simply a
matter of time.” (pp101-102)
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PATTERNS
 ont
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 to b e m o re re ctangular than
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re.
pe rfect sq ua
square…
 on?
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oes the
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r project g
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 o ject?
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 y?
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Do es your pr
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Introduction to Urban
and Regional Studies
Sessions 21-22