@techreport{NBERw4274,
 title = "Princes and Merchants:  European City Growth before the Industrial Revolution",
 author = "J. Bradford De Long and Andrei Shleifer",
 institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research",
 type = "Working Paper",
 series = "Working Paper Series",
 number = "4274",
 year = "1993",
 month = "February",
 URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w4274",
 abstract = {As measured by the pace of city growth in western Europe from 1000 to 1800. absolutist monarchs stunted the growth of commerce and industry. A region ruled by an absolutist prince saw its total urban population shrink by one hundred thousand people per century relative to a region without absolutist government. This might be explained by higher rates of taxation under revenue-maximizing absolutist governments than under non-absolutist governments. which care more about general economic prosperity and less about State revenue.},
}