Town founding in seventeenth-century North America: Jamestown in Virginia

Jamestown in Virginia provides a case study of one facet of the geography of England's overseas expansion in the seventeenth century. Recent discussions of not only Jamestown but all early North American settlements have laid stress on two points. The first towns were founded as entrepôts for international trade in raw materials and were located at central points on colonial coastlines to exert monopoly control over trade. But Jamestown fulfilled neither of these objectives. It was conceived by its promoters, at least initially, as a trading station similar, in many ways, to the Kontors of the Hansa towns and the fondachi of Italian city states. In English institutional terms Jamestown was to be a staple. Its location was off-centre with respect to pre-settlement boundary lines. Its founding was influenced partly by perceptions of the Chesapeake and partly by rivalries in the imperial contest for North America. Jamestown's settlers also had a comprehensive list of town site criteria that included references to trade routes, to site defensibility, and to the physical environment. Although not a prototype for later colonization of the Atlantic Seaboard, Jamestown represented the first settlement form.     

English towns in the late middle ages: the case of Great Yarmouth

Historians are divided over the economic fortunes of English towns in the late middle ages. Many argue for a ‘general crisis’ while others emphasize the variety of urban experience. Great Yarmouth is a striking example of a town facing protracted difficulties. Its decline in relation to other English towns between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries is particularly marked. Fourth among provincial towns in the 1334 tax return, Yarmouth ranked eighteenth in 1377 and twentieth in the subsidies of the 1520s.Yarmouth's problems become apparent soon after 1350, but while the Black Death may have killed one-third of its inhabitants, it is not the main cause of the town's misfortunes. Yarmouth depended heavily on two industries: shipping and fishing. The former was undermined by the early stages of the Hundred Years War, and the latter by competition from the Low Countries. A silting harbour which drove away trade and the high cost of building and repairing the town walls added to Yarmouth's difficulties.Whether economic decline is measured in terms of totals, for example total volume of trade, or in terms of individual production or wealth, Yarmouth fared badly. In the second half of the fourteenth century, Yarmouth's trade was much reduced and the town's leading burgesses seem much poorer than their counterparts before 1350. While Yarmouth clearly was in decline from about 1350 onwards, the town's experiences cannot be used to prove the case for a ‘general crisis’. They have to be seen in the context of the continuing prosperity of Norwich and the revival of Ipswich.     

The Conception of a Unified System of Settlement and the Planned Regulation of city Growth in the USSR

A unified system of settlement, defined as an interrelated network of places that is regulated for the benefit of society, is viewed as the most effective approach to overcoming socio-economic differences between town and countryside. Such a settlement system is viewed as ultimately replacing the present settlement patterns ranging from large urban agglomerations at one extreme to small rural places without adequate services at the other extreme. The unified settlement system is expected to insure roughly equivalent living and working conditions for all people within such a system. Some of the recent changes in Soviet settlement patterns are viewed as steps in that direction: an expansion of the network of large cities in connection with the economic development of new regions; the policy of industrializing small towns bypassed by the previous development of industry; the growing practice of establishing research organizations and branch plants in small towns to foster their development; the mechanization and industrialization of animal husbandry; the improvement of rural bus lines, providing access to service centers.     

试论乡村聚落体系的规划组织

乡村地理学是人文地理的重要分枝学科,乡村聚落的演化是乡村地理学的重要研究内容。在新的经济、社会发展背景中,乡村的意义与价值正在被重新认识,对其进行合理的规划组织,以形成与区域宏观社会经济背景相匹配的聚落体系,对城乡区域空间的整体协调发展具有重要的现实意义。文章阐述了乡村聚落体系演化理论、规划组织理论。关于乡村聚落体系演化,本文提出了区域空间进程中的四个阶段:农业社会阶段、过渡性阶段、工业化阶段、技术工业和高消费阶段。文章还研究了国际上对乡村聚落体系组织的战略方法,包括职能地域一体化战略、选择性空间封闭战略、乡村城市发展战略。文章结合江苏的有关案例,重点论述了中心镇及中心村选建、设施配置、政策配套等内容,指出:①通过中心镇的建设实现乡镇合并、重组;②通过中心村的建设实现农业空间的集约化经营,推动城市化进程;③通过配套支撑体系来实现对乡村聚落体系优化的引导。提出了中心村选建的主要标准:①区位优势;②联系合理;③规模经济;④节约用地。     

An Iroquois frontier: the north shore of Lake Ontario during the late seventeenth century

Historical accounts and assessments of Lake Ontario's north shore during the late seventeenth century generally describe the area as an abandoned battleground and devasted “no-man's land”. The impression is built of English and particularly French views that this was an area no longer useful as a major source of furs. To the Iroquois the land was anything but devastated. Whereas they bypassed the territory in their constant search for furs to the north and west, the north shore, strategic and fertile, became a trading, agricultural, and even settlement frontier. A reassessment of the written documents and largely neglected maps of the period suggest that the Iroquois occupation of the north shore was highly ordered and based on traditional trade routes and tribal territorial claims. It was an extension of the homeland. But innovations in subsistence, settlement, and lifestyle did occur. The study of expansion to the north shore provides valuable insights into the delicate balance between the forces of change and continuity in post-contact Iroquois society.     

Elaboration of a settlement system: the New England village in the federal period

Contemporary New England villages arose as nineteenth-century central places. The emergence of these commercial places reflected not the creation of something new out of whole cloth but an elaboration of an existing settlement system, a legacy of the colonial period and a manifestation of long-standing cultural habit. Town centers, more or less equally spaced and comprised of little more than a meetinghouse and a tavern, served as foci for town activities, as auxiliary central places. Most of the considerable localized economic exchange that characterized the colonial period occurred at dispersed places. The emergence of true central places about colonial town centers in the federal period marked a shift in scale or a general and widespread development of extra-local exchange, division of labor, and provision of centrality—the ability of a place to provide goods and services beyond the needs of its residents. Central places became accretions of full-time nonfarmers, of storekeepers, artisans, and professional people. Moreover, these places were interlinked to form a system of central places and, although a sorting process took place, the system was both a material manifestation of contemporary economic experience and an elaboration of the colonial settlement system.     

Pioneers,politicians and the conservation of forests in early New Zealand

In pioneering societies there is usually little interest in resource conservation, and scant concern for the consequences of environmental disturbance. Yet legislation to conserve the extensive forests of New Zealand was introduced soon after settlement began, and despite a general desire for material improvement. Ultimately, this paradox is attributable to George Perkins Marsh's demonstration of the ecological consequences of man's impact on his environment in Man and nature. The arguments of this work published in 1864 were soon heard in New Zealand. But a mere handful of New Zealanders recognized the importance of Marsh's ideas. For the most part, they were immigrants from the middle and upper ranks of British society, drawn to the colony by the prospects it offered, and removed from the general struggle to tame the land. Their concern was essential in promoting interest in the questions of environmental disturbance and conservation in the 1870s. The immediate reason for the introduction of the New Zealand Forests Bill in 1874, however, was Prime Minister Julius Vogel's recognition of the applicability of the conservationists' arguments to the New Zealand scene. Thus character and circumstance combined to heighten the impact of Marsh's writing and to temper the ethic of exploitative land use in the pioneering environment of New Zealand.     

GEOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF THE FIXED ASSETS OF RURAL PLACES

The use of fixed assets data as a geographical research tool is illustrated with reference to a rural rayon [minor civil division] of Kaluga Oblast, southwest of Moscow. The value of fixed assets by places is correlated with population size, the position of places within the system of settlement of particular state farms or collective farms, and distance from towns. The share of productive assets (farm buildings and equipment) is found to reach a maximum in places with populations of 100 to 200. In larger places, the share of productive assets declines because of the higher value of housing and the presence of most service facilities. The share of productive assets also tends to be low in suburban places where a substantial portion of the population commutes to nearby towns.     

ANALYSIS OF SETTLEMENT SYSTEMS IN A MOUNTAIN REGION

In a continuing study of settlement systems using space imagery and aerial photography, systems of settlement and central places are analyzed on the basis of the intensity of transport movements between places. Central places are assigned to different categories according to the patterns of transport linkages in their tributary areas. Relationships between the maximum extent of zones of influence and the population of central places are discussed. The concept of developmental phase of a settlement system is introduced. For previous articles by the author, see S.G., Jan. 1975 and Oct. 1976. [The study area, though not identified, is in the Altay Mountains.]     

宋金元时期陇西、青东黄土高原地区城镇的发展

宋金元时期是陇西、青东地区城镇发展的重要阶段。北宋为经略陇右而在陇西、青东地区大修堡寨,促使城镇数量激增,形成畸形发展之势;金元时期,城镇数量的显著下降是城镇建设回归常态的反映。这一时期城镇数量的剧烈变化主要存在于县以下的小城镇,而县及县以上城镇的变化相对稳定。特殊的政治、军事、民族形势和国防的需要,是影响这一时期城镇发展的主要因素,在此基础上,陇西、青东地区的城镇在功能上形成综合性区域中心城镇、军事性城镇和商贸型城镇三大类型。     

Commerce and trade in Viking Age Norway. Exchange of products or organized transactions?

In this paper the difficulties of distinguishing between commerce in the sense of exchange of products (i.e. more locally organized trade between neighbours/districts) and trade carried out as the main occupation for certain people, are discussed. These are questions very closely connected with the urbanization process of Norway. With the material from Kaupang (Skiringssal) as a point of departure, the author discusses two ways of finding out what type of trade was carried out in Viking Age Norway: A) One may look for the same combination of names found at Kaupang in other places. These seem to reveal ‘town‐making’ features. B) Ask whether any of the still existing medieval towns in Norway have had a pre‐urban stage. At the end of the paper the author discusses the possibilities of tracing different commodities which were traded over the different ports or market‐places.     

Some Aspects of the Formation of Urban Settlement Patterns (Illustrated by the Tatar ASSR,Bashkir ASSR,and Kuybyshev Oblast)

Using the example of the Soviet Union's principal oil-producing region between the Middle Volga and the Urals, the authors identify systems of urban settlement and classify urban places in terms of their situation within systems of settlement. The situation of a place within a system is used as a criterion for determining whether future industrial growth of that place should be stimulated or restricted. A related article by one of the authors, F. M. Listengurt, appeared in Soviet Geography, October 1965.     

The use of Animals at Roman Roadside Settlements in Britain: Contextualizing some new Results from Ware,Hertfordshire

Recent analysis of a large faunal assemblage from a Roman roadside settlement at Ware, Hertfordshire has indicated potentially strong links between the nature of animal exploitation on site and its location on Ermine Street. Animal husbandry was focused on the production of cattle and sheep, both of which had experienced stock ‘improvement’ by the late Roman period. Relatively high proportions of horse, and the presence of young horses, suggest the importance of this animal and the potential for its local breeding; the site could have acted as a station for changing or selling horses. The presence of marine fish and black rat also indicate clear links to the wider trade network. This was not an isolated settlement, outside the sphere of Roman influence, as rural Roman sites are often considered to be, but well‐connected to wider economic networks. This paper places these new results in context, by providing a review of faunal assemblages from Roman roadside settlements across Britain. The review indicates that most of the characteristics of animal exploitation at Ware are shared with other roadside settlement sites, though interesting differences also emerge.     

A STRATEGY FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF SETTLEMENT BSf THE USSR; AIMS,PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

A General Program of Settlement in the USSR, worked out by the Central Urban Planning Institute, envisages a long-term evolution of settlement that would help ameliorate the quality of life, insure industrial development of small and middle-size towns and help protect the environment. Two alternative strategies are envisaged: (1) an extrapolative strategy that projects long-term trends on the basis of past experiences and would enhance agglomerative processes in Soviet settlement; (2) a normative, goal-directed strategy that would seek to foster the evolution of planned and regulated systems of interconnected urban and rural places, and would gradually transform the present agglomerations along the lines of such normative systems. The prospective distribution of settlement under both strategies is mapped. Under the extrapolative strategy, the urban population share in areas with agglomerated forms of settlement would reach nearly 70 percent over the forecast period compared with 44 percent in 1970. The normative, goal-directed strategy would yield 60 large interconnected urban-rural systems, centered on the country's largest cities and accounting for 53 percent of the total population; 170 middle-size systems, centered on moderately large cities and including 26 percent of the population; and 325 small systems, centered on small and middle-size towns and including 14 percent of the population. About 7 percent of the population would remain outside the systemic structure.     

A tale of two towns: Buntingford and Standon in the later middle ages

The controversy over the fortunes of English towns in the later middle ages has tended to generate more heat than light. Much of the evidence employed in this debate has been drawn from the larger English towns, but this essay suggests a widening of the research agenda to include a more systematic assessment of small towns and village markets. Although weakened by the reduced demand for grain after the Black Death, these places competed for the growing local trade in basic consumer goods. Evidence from northeast Hertfordshire reveals that this competition resulted in a significant restructuring of the hierarchy of local marketing centres, and a decline in the ability of seigneurial and urban authorities to regulate trading activity.     

Bronze Age boundaries and social exchange in north-west Cyprus

Summary.   During the Late Bronze Age a number of towns engaged in copper production and overseas trade arose throughout the coastal regions of Cyprus. While some of these towns were located within a few kilometres of major ore deposits in the Troodos Mountains, others were situated much farther away, and presumably acquired their copper supplies through extensive networks of exchange. This paper addresses the question of how such networks may have been structured in north-western and north central Cyprus, within and adjacent to the research area of the Sydney Cyprus Survey Project. Based on our analyses of site locational factors, we propose the co-existence of at least two distinct networks of copper procurement and transport. Consideration of the finds from settlement and mortuary sites in the northern Troodos and Mesaoria plain suggests a pattern of hierarchical exchange relations between coastal and inland regions.     

‘Samudayik Shakti’: Working-class feminism and social organisation in Subhash Camp,New Delhi

This article illustrates the intersections between architecture and agency in Subhash Camp, a squatter settlement in New Delhi, by ‘situating activism in place’. It highlights the significance of place in social action by examining the architecture of everyday places—the house, the street and the square—as the sites of both individual transformations and collective consciousness. Through observations of the activities of and interviews with members of Samudayik Shakti, a women's organisation and a men's panchayat, this article highlights a number of related processes in Subhash Camp: how different women experienced different places through everyday spatial practices; how the spatial practices in these places were shaped by different social structures at different scales, from the family to the state; how the architecture of these places was significant both as sites of control and of emancipation of women's bodies; and how this dynamic contributed to the making of social action in Subhash Camp.     

Boston and Grimsby in the middle ages: an administrative contrast

Study of the Lincolnshire towns of Boston and Grimsby throws light on the question of borough status in the middle ages. Both towns shared the basic liberties which made urban life possible in the middle ages: personal and tenurial freedom, freedom from tolls and other economic privileges such as the right to hold fairs and markets. Although contemporaries had no clear definition of ‘the borough’ and boroughs were not a distinct legal category, historians have profitably employed this concept to draw attention to these fundamental tenurial and economic liberties. However, the privileges held by individual boroughs varied enermously. Royal boroughs, such as Grimsby, tended to be marked by an administrative independence where the community of burgesses were free to elect their own mayors and bailiffs, and paid salaried officials from a common purse. In many seignorial boroughs, including Boston, the burgesses enjoyed less self government. Here the town's overlords maintained a more active interest in administration through their control of the town courts and their appointment of officers. Nevertheless there is little evidence for conflict between lords and burgesses at Boston (as there was in many monastic boroughs) and the town flourished. Urban liberties were the essential pre-condition of town life but there was no necessary correlation between urban growth and town franchises. Boston was a wealthier and more populous town than Grimsby and yet enjoyed less administrative independence. The extent of urban liberties reflected lordship rather than economic importance.     

清代集镇名实初探

《清国史·地理志》、《清史稿·地理志》每县下均有某某镇的记录。经考察,认为这种记录并没有严格的学术标准,有一定的任意性。实际上,清代的镇,并非县以下一级管理地方或征收商税的机构。凡是有一定集中的人口,商业比较繁荣的聚落(集市),往往被人们称为镇。其中有的置有县以下管理地方治安的机构,如巡检司,有的什么设置也没有,仍被称镇;也有既设了巡检司等管理或纳税机构,然仍不称镇。可见清代文献中镇的记录并无严格标准。至于文献上记载镇的四至范围,实际上指的是所设机构管理(如巡检司)的地域范围,与镇并无关系。     

Regional Planning Problems in the Soviet Far East

A variety of approaches are being recommended in regional plans for future settlements patterns in the Soviet Far East. In Magadan Oblast, the present scattered pattern of small populated places is to be superseded by greater concentration of urban population in a set of subregional service centers. In Khabarovsk Kray, different approaches are being recommended for the future development of the Khabarovsk and Komsomol'sk areas. Because limitation of the future growth of Khabarovsk is desirable, new industrial establishments are to be located in the future in nearby small towns and urban settlements of the Khabarovsk industrial district. In the Komsomol'sk area, satellite towns are to be significantly developed, giving rise to a grouped form of urban settlement, including the tin-mining center of Solnechnyy and the paper and chemical center of Amursk. In Amur Oblast, consideration is being given to the development of an iron and steel plant in the Svobodnyy area, giving rise to a city of up to 200,000 population.