Belgian Democracy: Its Early History

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE TOWNS.

I. The Roman period and the Prankish period. — II. Castles and Cities. — III. The Portus and its Immigrants. — IV. The Trading Population and its Social Demands. — V. The Guilds.

I. The Roman Period and the Prankish Period.

Although one of the most striking characteristics of the Low Countries is the large number of towns to be found there, and although at all periods of their history the townsfolk have played a leading part in their politics, nevertheless urban life did not begin there till comparatively late. Most of the great towns of Italy and France, of the Rhineland and the Upper Danube, are earlier than our era, whereas Li^ge, Louvain, Mechlin, Antwerp, Brussels, Bruges, Ypres, Ghent, Utrecht, etc., did not come into existence till the beginning of the Middle Ages. Under the Roman Empire Tongres was the only Netherlandish town of note, and Tongres owed her importance to her place in the provincial administration. When that broke down at the time of the Germanic invasions, she lost for ever the influence which she had for a time exercised in her neighbourhood. In the Roman period Arlon and Namur were only boroughs of secondary rank. Tournai, though apparently more important, was so deeply affected by the Prankish conquest that the episcopal see, already established there, had to be removed to Noyon, and was not restored till the twelfth century. Thus, with very few exceptions, the Dutch and Belgian towns of our day are comparatively recent in origin. Nor is this surprising, for, situated as they were at the northern end of the Empire on the borders of the barbarian world, the basins of the Scheldt and the Meuse lay off the great trade routes and were, therefore, not readily accessible to that urban life which commercial intercourse evokes and maintains. They were crossed by a single great route running from east to west, from Cologne to Boulogne. Its branches towards the south served for the exportation of the smoke-dried meats of the country, for which there was a certain demand, and of the woollen fabrics manufactured by the peasantry of the Morini and Menapii.