麻豆约拍

The historical background to the formation of the 'Bastides' or walled towns in South West France in the Middle Ages. We learn how they stimulated settlement and population growth through granting equally sized housing and a degree of fiscal and political autonomy, with a more localised form of control exercised by the town council. This new socio-political set-up marked the beginnings of the urban working class, the 'bourgeoisie'.