were reserved, and nothing was left for the latter but the right of freely using the skill of their own hands.  The city thus became divided into “the burghers” or “the commonalty,” and “the inhabitants."(38) The trade, which was formerly communal, now became the privilege of the merchant and artisan “families,” and the next step—­that of becoming individual, or the privilege of oppressive trusts—­ was unavoidable.

The same division took place between the city proper and the surrounding villages.  The commune had well tried to free the peasants, but her wars against the lords became, as already mentioned, wars for freeing the city itself from the lords, rather than for freeing the peasants.  She left to the lord his rights over the villeins, on condition that he would molest the city no more and would become co-burgher.  But the nobles “adopted” by the city, and now residing within its walls, simply carried on the old war within the very precincts of the city.  They disliked to submit to a tribunal of simple artisans and merchants, and fought their old feuds in the streets.  Each city had now its Colonnas and Orsinis, its Overstolzes and Wises.  Drawing large incomes from the estates they had still retained, they surrounded themselves with numerous clients and feudalized the customs and habits of the city itself.  And when discontent began to be felt in the artisan classes of the town, they offered their sword and their followers to settle the differences by a free fight, instead of letting the discontent find out the channels which it did not fail to secure itself in olden times.

The greatest and the most fatal error of most cities was to base their wealth upon commerce and industry, to the neglect of agriculture.  They thus repeated the error which had once been committed by the cities of antique Greece, and they fell through it into the same crimes.(39) The estrangement of so many cities from the land necessarily drew them into a policy hostile to the land, which became more and more evident in the times of Edward the Third,(40) the French Jacqueries, the Hussite wars, and the Peasant War in Germany.  On the other hand, a commercial policy involved them in distant enterprises.  Colonies were founded by the Italians in the south-east, by German cities in the east, by Slavonian cities in the far northeast.  Mercenary armies began to be kept for colonial wars, and soon for local defence as well.  Loans were contacted to such an extent as to totally demoralize the citizens; and internal contests grew worse and worse at each election, during which the colonial politics in the interest of a few families was at stake.  The division into rich and poor grew deeper, and in the sixteenth century, in each city, the royal authority found ready allies and support among the poor.