550 Ch. 14 • The Industrial Revolution

Table 14.3. Population of Major European Cities

City^18001850

London

Paris

Vienna

Naples

Saint Petersburg

Moscow

Berlin

Liverpool

Birmingham

Leeds

Manchester

900,000-1,000,000

547,000(1801)

247.000

350.000

200.000

200,000

172,000

77.000

73.000

53,162

25,000(1772)

2,363,000

1,053,000(1851)

444,000

415,000(1871)

485.000

365.000

419.000

400.000

250.000

172,023

367.000

In general, the farther north and particularly east one went in Europe, the

fewer and smaller the towns. In Austria, more than four of every five people

lived in the countryside, and in Sweden, nine of ten. In Russia, serfdom tied

peasants to the land. Furthermore, there was in general less manufacturing

in Eastern Europe, and therefore fewer manufacturing towns and trading

ports. The Russian Empire had only three cities of any size—Saint Peters­

burg, Moscow, and Kiev; parts of Moscow were still indistinguishable from

the rural world, dotted with wood or mud huts inhabited by peasant workers.

Yet even in the Russian Empire, the percentage of people living in towns and

cities almost doubled during the first half of the century.

As cities grew, streets may have been better illuminated than ever

before, thanks to gas lighting, but poorer districts became much more

crowded. Only a fifth of the buildings in Paris were connected to the city’s

water supply, and in these only the first floor or two (carriers hauled tubs

of water up and down staircases). Crimes against property increased rapidly

with urban growth, especially during periods of hardship. Between 1805

and 1848, indictable offenses in England and Wales multiplied by six,

although part of this dramatic jump may reflect the result of better policing,

and thus reporting. To the upper classes, rapid urban growth itself seemed

threatening.

As urban centers became ever more densely packed, industrial suburbs

developed. The urban periphery offered more available land; proximity to

railways, canals, and rivers; and a ready labor supply perched on the edge

of the city, where the cost of living was cheaper. After the Revolution of

1830, one of French King Louis-Philippe’s ministers warned that the fac­

tories and industrial workers of the periphery “will be the cord that wrings

our neck one day.” Within cities, the European middle classes withdrew

into privileged elite quarters, leaving workers and other poor people in sep­

arate, disadvantaged neighborhoods.