Cities dominated by commerce are offensive to many today, but historically a city of commerce is a city of peace, a city that has escaped the domination of military elites and interest.

Weber wrote: “While in Antiquity the hoplite army and its training and military interests moved to the center of the city organization, most civic privileges in the Middle Ages began with the reduction of civic military service to garrison duty. Economically, the urbanites were increasingly concerned with peaceful gains through trade and industry, the lower strata of the city most of all.”