As Europe was coming out of the middle ages, cities as a centre of administration and commerce were particularly important in modernizing Europe, we can see this as by the mid 1500s, already ten to fifteen per cent of Europe's population lived in towns of greatly varying size. ... In Lyons, for example, the wages of casual laborers fell below the poverty line (reached when at least 70 per cent of income had to be spent on bread, leaving virtually nothing to spend on other staples, rent, or fuel) almost every year from 1550 to 1600. ... For example in northern french town of Chålon...

• Word Count: 1967
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate