Relations between town and country are central to Europe's long-term economic, political and social evolution. This 2001 book surveys and re-interprets these relations in particular countries and regions in the light of the most recent debates on state formation, urbanisation, proto-industrialisation, and the regional character of pre-modern economic growth. Thirteen specially commissioned chapters, ranging chronologically from the Black Death to the Enlightenment, give a comprehensive coverage of Europe, from Spain to Sweden and England, and from the Polish Commonwealth to Holland and Italy. Each chapter offers a self-contained analysis of its country or region and provides a basis for systematic comparison. The Introduction (by S. R. Epstein) discusses the historiographical and theoretical framework for the regional chapters, emphasising how evolving political configurations changed the balance between 'coercive' and 'market-based' solutions to town-country relations and set countries on different paths to growth.

For more than fifty years no synthesis has been written which systematically examines the growth and development of cities in north-west Europe. Adriaan Verhulst takes as his subject the history of urban settlements and towns in the region between the rivers Somme and Meuse from the late Roman period (fourth century) to the end of the twelfth century. This region comprises Flanders and Liège, two of the most urbanized areas, not only in the southern Netherlands but in northwestern Europe as a whole until the twelfth century. Fifteen towns are studied in all, and, supported by numerous maps, Professor Verhulst provides rich details of the impact of political, military, ecclesiastical, as well as social and economic, factors on the developing towns as they were transformed from regional markets to centres of industry and international commerce.