How Merchant Towns Shaped Parliaments: From the Norman Conquest of England to the Great Reform Acts

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Angelucci, Charles; Meraglia, Simone; Voigtlaender, Nico
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); University of Exeter; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20200885
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 3441-3487
• 关键词: institutional change; state capacity; PRIVY-COUNCIL; origins; GROWTH; GOVERNMENT; ABSOLUTISM; DEMOCRACY; SOCIETY; decline

摘要

We study the emergence of urban self-governance in the late medie-val period. We focus on England after the Norman Conquest of 1066, building a novel comprehensive dataset of 554 medieval towns. During the Commercial Revolution (twelfth to thirteenth centuries), many merchant towns obtained Farm Grants: the right of self -gov-erned tax collection and law enforcement. Self-governance, in turn, was a stepping stone for parliamentary representation: Farm Grant towns were much more likely to be summoned directly to the medieval English Parliament than otherwise similar towns. We also show that self-governed towns strengthened the role of Parliament and shaped national institutions over the subsequent centuries. (JEL D02, D72, D73, K11, K34, N43, N93)