TOWN AND COUNTRY - ECONOMY AND INSTITUTIONS IN LATE-MEDIEVAL ITALY

Economic development in Sicily, Tuscany, and Lombardy between the early fourteenth century and the mid sixteenth was shaped by institutional innovations, particularly in town-country relations, brought about by the growth of territorial states. Processes of regional specialization and integration are identified through changes in urban hierarchies; institutional factors shaped the division of labour between town and country and the character of growth in cloth manufactures. The balance of power between town and country and between one town and another also influenced the rise and stability of late medieval states.