El campo en la ciudad y la ciudad en el campo: urbanización e instituciones en Castilla durante la Edad Moderna

Abstract

This article discusses the methods of analysis and of measurement and the underlying theoretical assumptions of the classical work on European urbanization by Jan de Vries published in 1984. Distinguishing between urbanization figures in Castile and Aragon, a pattern of urban growth can be outlined for sixteenthcentury Castile which presents itself as an anomaly, within the overall european evolution due to the development of small towns with fewer than ten thousand inhabitants. The analysis of this expansion of small-scale urbanization allows the author to discuss the commonplace that Castile was undergoing overall economic integration before the emergence of Madrid as a main redistributive center, and focuses on the institutional characters shared by these small towns and accounting for increasing difficulties faced by large towns in profiting from their comparative advantages derived from their greater division of labour.