But we must not forget
that this transfer also meant a great economic change in the
organization of society: that it meant a transfer of the seat of
economic importance from the city to the country; the spirit of the
times requiring, especially in the earlier stages of the development
of the institution, that the seat of wealth should follow the seat of
power. I note this now because we shall soon have occasion to consider
how important a factor, in the earliest period of the development of
the cities, their entire lack of prominence in both political and
economic affairs was to prove itself. Under the old Roman system, as
we have seen, the city was the important unit: Rome was a subduer and
an upbuilder of cities. Under the new Teutonic element the land is
what is brought into prominence, and the possessor of it into power.
The dominant member of society is the landowner and not the citizen.
In ancient society the "citizen" need own no land; in the modern
society of the feudal age, the "gentleman" could not be such without
owning land.
This opposition between the citizen, the burgher, and the landowner,
the baron, leads us to a conclusion of the utmost importance to the
whole study of city life during the middle ages. We note the universal
prevalence of the _forms_ characteristic of the feudal system, and
from this we conclude that its _principles_ were as universally
adopted.
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