Trade and urban development in Poland : an economic geography of Cracow, from its origins to 1795 /

Carter's book is not an urban biography treating the historical development of Cracow, its institutions, and peoples. Rather, it is a study of this particular city's trade linkages over time to gain insights into the specifics of trade and urban development worked out in the context of a dynamic social and political history. Covering the period from the Late Middle Ages to the final partition of Poland in 1795, the volume opens with two chapters discussing matters of historiography, theory, and methodology. An analysis of local, national, and regional political and economic development serves as a backdrop to the analysis of trade that constitutes the main contribution of the volume. Using an imaginative array of primary resources, Carter (Univ. of London) reconstructs the amplitude and extent of commerce over a millennium. He identifies a very detailed list of commodities and explores the reasons for their demand and supply. The final chapter attempts an assessment of Cracow's role as national and continental emporium, concluding that its loss of its capital function was attended by a decline in its commercial prominence. The text is accompanied by 150 figures, graphs, and tables and a Polish abstract. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate collections. B. Osborne; Queen's University