Town and Country

        Visiting Orvieto is such a relief.  I have always been a fan of the big city life, but the last few days in Florence was exhausting.  Sometimes visiting a small town is a refreshing contrast.  

As I walked through the streets of Orvieto, that small town feeling defiantly showed.  I'm sure everyone was wondering who the big group was walking aimlessly in the rain.  Well, we are just a bunch of Americans looking for a big church that you can not miss.  After finding the big cathedral, we were escorted by Allessio to our convent for the night.  I quickly fell asleep thinking what we were going to do the next couple of days.

During our time in Orvieto, we got to speak to the mayor of the town.  Overall, he stated that the big groups of tourists are valuable to the town, because the town relies on a couple other industries and tourism.  After that visit, we were able to visit a library to view some old books and eventually we were led to an underground cave system.  All these activities eventually led up to Zach and I having to present our article.  

For this round of presentations, we read the Article Town and Country: Economy and Institutions in Late Medieval Italy written by S. R. Epstein.  The main focus of the article talks about the relationship that existed around the 14th-16th century.  The article was split up into two sections.  The first section talked about how political and institutional constraints affected the size and growth of a town.  The second section, which I will talk about more in depth, looks into the social and political factors that affect town and country.

Using cloth manufacturing as an example, Epstein compares how that affected the growth of towns.  Starting off with Sicily, it was an area that did not have a workers guild, and the city was mostly informal and unstructured.  During 1400's it had a rise in demand for linen.  Domestic production increased but mostly for low and medium quality.  During that time, Florentine became more prominent.  The urban guild started to control rural guilds and developed a monopoly over production.  This basically led to a corporate strength that controlled the countryside.   

During this time, there was also a strengthening of territorial state.  The territorial state was in charge of granting fiscal and commercial privaleges.  Often times these would benefit the urban area, and more oppressive policies would be placed on the outer towns.  

Throughout the article, the author uses specific examples to explain the relationship between town and country. I believe that at the end, the author puts it most simply. One of the points given is both political and economic factors came into play to whether political states gained or lost.  Also, the relationship between town and country help decide how the state would help with or compromise with towns.