of the Alps. They had taught men the management of 
     capital, bookkeeping and the various forms of credit, and 
     though they continued to dominate the trade in money, 
     they found themselves faced by a growing number of 
     rivals in the trade in merchandise.

The peculiar character of medieval town life was its 
juxtaposition of two populations. There were the burgesses or 
guildsmen for whom the town mainly existed, and whose effort 
was to fix prices and standards for goods and conditions of 
citizenship:

     The period in which the craft guilds dominated or 
     influenced the economic regime of the towns is also that 
     in which urban protectionism reached its height. However 
     divergent their professional interests might be, all