RE: (TFT) TFT: Medieval City Size

["grabowski" <grabowski@erols.com>]

Dave stated,

   On /Discovery News/ they mentioned an ancient Roman city in Turkey which
had an estimated population of 60,000.  This led me to ask the question:
What was the extreme upper limit of medieval city size?.....

Read Henri Pirenne's Medieval Cities (I am going to read it again because
you asked).  As far as population of cities goes it is variable as to where
and when.  In Edo (modern-day Tokyo) in the 16th century, the end of the MA,
population stood at about 1 million; whereas, in Europe, London and Paris
were large cities at 100-200 thousand.  I believe I read somewhere that half
the population of England lived in the confines of London at this time and
perhaps the same or more in Paris.

Barbara Tuchman in "A Distant Mirror" mentions that any statistics given by
medieval writers are generally enlarged by several "hundred" percent to
amaze or appall the reader.  Also the use of Roman numerals (hey, I feel
like I am writing on the Harn list) made for lack of precision.  The
pre-plague population of France has totals that vary from 11 to 21 million
(give or take a few).

Other facts from Tuchman:


- At the beginning of the 100 Years War, France had a population of 21
million compared to 4 million in England.

- Before the Black Death, Rouen, France had a population of about 16,000
after the plague in the 15th century about 6,000.

- In the 14th century, half the population in Engand and France was under
age 21 with 1/3rd of the population 14 and under.

I used Judge's Guilds City-State and Gamelord's Free City of Haven
throughout the time I played actively TFT (City-State for a very short time
though.  The thought of Ogre Mages running taverns was not my cup of tea).
The City-State had a population of about 10 to 20 thousand and Haven, a
London-sized, 80,000.

Yours in Cidri,
Justin

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