The Role of Industrial and Post-Industrial Cities in Economic Development

W00-1: Once upon a time the location of towns and cities, at least superficially, seemed to be largely determined by the preferences of kings, princes, bishops, generals and other political and military leaders of society. A site’s defensibility or its capabilities for imposing military or administrative control over surrounding countryside were often of paramount importance. As one historian summed up the conventional wisdom: “Cities...were to be found...wherever agriculture produced sufficient surplus to sustain a population of rulers, soldiers, craftsmen and other nonfood producers.” The key to successful urbanization, in short, wasn’t so much what the city could do for the countryside as what the countryside could do for the city. This traditional view of early cities, while perhaps correct in its essentials, is also almost surely too limited. Cities were never just parasitic; most have always added at least some economic value…