Near the year 1000, wide ranging trade routes were re-established as sources of investment capital grew more stable. At this time two cities near the base of the Itahan peninsula, Genoa and Venice, were in the vanguard of those who restored commerce, sometimes by force, up and down the Mediterranean. The money, goods and power that gathered at these ports brought quick change to Northern Italy. In the next 150 years Italian nobles, Knights, Lords and Princes became part of the whirlwind of activity brought on by trade. Their lifestyles changed dramatically. They lost interest in overseeing their lands, which they had maintained and protected by force for centuries. They paid to have them managed, and moved to the centers of activity in the wealthy commercial cities. The arms needed to collect taxes from serfs in the countryside were now more profitably used in collecting taxes from trade in Clusters of watchtowers hundreds offeet high were built in Italian cities by competing consortia of noble families. Making parts of cities impregnable, and unlivable, the towers and the vendettas carried out by their owners led to an uprising by the general population. These towers still stand today in San Gimignano. After Waley, The Italian City-Republics. Winter/Spring 1991 RAIN Page 25 cities, or in expanding property and influence in the bustling urban economy. As the loosely-run towns and villages of Northern Italy became more valuable, struggle over their control became fierce. The larger and smaller Noble landholders fought with each other and with la'nded churches and merchants. After at least a hundred years of battles and negotiations, a firm, organized city government emerged: the commune, run in an orderly manner by consuls elected by the merchant-noble elite. The institution served to resolve regional conflicts and to protect local property from Kings and emperors. Though hardly democratic in a modern sense, the commune's in_novation in administrative form was significant. Instead of a ruler, the cities were run by elected consuls. These consuls brought major issues before their citizens: a wealthy, select and powerful minority; usually tiny enough to fit into an assembly hall. They approved of issues through acclamation, that is, clapping, pounding and yelling loudly. With this institution, the elite created a model for the broader participation that came later. These city patricians then incited the underprivileged by indulging in greed and feuds. In spite of the diplomacy on which the commune was founded, the aristocrats brought to town their habitual militarism, and turned the cities into tight clusters of heavily armed neighborhoods- a condensed version of the embattled and divided countryside. Noble families drew close into fortresses and towers right across the street from one another. Less privileged nobles, smaller merchants, artisans and others involved in trade were no longer willing to provide urban battlefields to families that taxed their businesses relentlessly. They became the Popolo, rebels of the middle-class who were not involved in government, but who felt they should be. In Milan, recently formed guilds gathered support. As the biggest manufacturing center in Italy, Milan became the site of the first popolo uprising. They built their revolution secretly, in order to avoid the militant nobles, and later burst upon the scene fully organized. The less centralized a police force, the more responsible it is to the needs of the residents. Because of the turf battles among the nobility, each neighborhood had established a separate militia to act as a police force responsible to the commune. Neighborhood popolo workers were able to convince members of the old communal militia to join with them, probably because there was no strong, centralized, citywide leadership among these police. Ties to various religious, guild and neighborhood organizations among the militia, whose
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