The early modern period is often characterised as a time that witnessed the rise of a new and powerful merchant class across Europe. From Italy and Spain in the south, to the Low Countries and England in the north, men of business and trade came to play an increasingly pivotal role in the culture, politics and economies of western Europe. This book takes a comparative approach to the effect such merchants and traders had on the urban history of market places - streets, squares and civic buildings - in some of the great commercial European cities between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. It looks at how this in period, the transformations of designated commercial areas were important enough to modify relationships throughout the entire urban context. Market places tend to be very ancient, continuing to function for centuries on the same location; but between the middle of the fourteenth and the first decades of the seventeenth, their structures began to change as new regulations and patterns of manufacture, distribution and consumption began to install a new uniformity and geometry on the market place. During the period covered by this study, most major European cities undertook the rebuilding of entire zones, constructing new buildings, demolishing existing structures and embellishing others. This book analyses the intentions of innovation, in parallel with sanitary and hygienic reasons, the juridical regulations of the architecture of certain building types and the urban strategies as efficient tools to better control the economic activities within the city.

The early modern period witnessed the rise of a new and powerful merchant class across Europe. The Market and the City takes a comparative approach to the effect merchants and traders had on the urban history of market places - streets, squares and specific buildings - in some of the great commercial European cities between the 15th and 17th centuries. It looks at how the transformations of designated commercial areas were important enough to modify relationships throughout the entire urban context. Market places tend to be very ancient, continuing to function for centuries on the same location; but between the middle of the 14th and the first decades of the 17th, their structures began to change as new regulations and patterns of manufacture, distribution and consumption began to install a new uniformity and geometry on the market place. During the period covered by this study, most major European cities undertook the rebuilding of entire zones, constructing new buildings, demolishing existing structures and embellishing others.

Introduction: the claim -- How it happens -- Becoming market and people cities -- How government and leaders make cities work -- What residents think, believe, and act on -- Why it matters -- Getting there, being there: transportation and land use -- Environment/economy : and or versus? -- Life together and apart -- Across cities -- To be or not to be -- Acknowledgments -- Methodological appendix -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the authors

An argument that operational urban planning can be improved by the application of the tools of urban economics to the design of regulations and infrastructure. Urban planning is a craft learned through practice. Planners make rapid decisions that have an immediate impact on the ground—the width of streets, the minimum size of land parcels, the heights of buildings. The language they use to describe their objectives is qualitative—“sustainable,” “livable,” “resilient”—often with no link to measurable outcomes. Urban economics, on the other hand, is a quantitative science, based on theories, models, and empirical evidence largely developed in academic settings. In this book, the eminent urban planner Alain Bertaud argues that applying the theories of urban economics to the practice of urban planning would greatly improve both the productivity of cities and the welfare of urban citizens. Bertaud explains that markets provide the indispensable mechanism for cities’ development. He cites the experience of cities without markets for land or labor in pre-reform China and Russia; this “urban planners’ dream” created inefficiencies and waste. Drawing on five decades of urban planning experience in forty cities around the world, Bertaud links cities’ productivity to the size of their labor markets; argues that the design of infrastructure and markets can complement each other; examines the spatial distribution of land prices and densities; stresses the importance of mobility and affordability; and critiques the land use regulations in a number of cities that aim at redesigning existing cities instead of just trying to alleviate clear negative externalities. Bertaud concludes by describing the new role that joint teams of urban planners and economists could play to improve the way cities are managed.

This study examines the struggle between Smithfield market's supporters and detractors and argues that this demonstrates a major shift in the way the urban landscape came to be used.

Using a transnational analytical framework, this book provides a comprehensive overview of formal and informal markets and place in globalised cities. It examines how urban markets are situated within social, cultural and media discourses, and within material and symbolic economies. The book addresses four key narratives – redevelopment and relocation; privatization of public space; urban renewal; and urbanism and sustainability – to investigate shared and individual attributes of markets and place in diverse, international urban contexts. With case studies in Sydney, Hong Kong, Beijing, Rio de Janeiro, London, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Paris and San Francisco, experiences of market, place and city are explored through interdisciplinary and multimodal perspectives of visual culture, spatial practice, urban design and textual analysis.

Kathryn Chase Merrett celebrates 100 years of the Edmonton City Market in this groundbreaking local history. A History of the Edmonton City Market brings a comprehensive study of a long-lived and much-loved institution to life by seamlessly integrating details of the City Market with wider contexts of urban, economic, and cultural studies.

A history of The English Market, Ireland's most famous food emporium. It has survived revolution, fire, famine, depression, and boom.