Port-Cities and their Hinterlands: Migration, Trade and Cultural Exchange from the Early Seventeenth Century to 1939

This book explores the relationship between cities and their hinterlands, discussing how port-cities have interacted and intersected with their different hinterlands due to in- and out-migration, cultural exchange, and the wider flow of goods, services, and information. It highlights the importance of maritime commerce in urbanization and the role of ports as nodal points for the flow of population and goods. The chapters focus on the determinants of port-hinterland linkages and analyze these as distinct but interrelated fields of interaction.

Format: Hardback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 15 March 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This interdisciplinary book brings together eleven original contributions by scholars in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, America, and Japan, representing innovative and important research on the relationship between cities and their hinterlands. They discuss the factors that determined the changing nature of port-hinterland relations, particularly, and highlight the ways in which port-cities have interacted and intersected with their different hinterlands as a result of both in- and out-migration, cultural exchange, and the wider flow of goods, services, and information.

Historically, maritime commerce was a powerful driving force behind urbanization, and by 1850, seaports accounted for a significant proportion of the world's great cities. Ports acted as nodal points for the flow of population and the dissemination of goods and services, but their role as growth poles also affected the economic transformation of both their hinterlands and forelands. In fact, most ports, irrespective of their size, had a series of overlapping hinterlands whose shifting importance reflected changes in trading relations (political frameworks), migration patterns, family networks, and cultural exchange. Urban historians have been criticized for being concerned primarily with self-contained processes that operate within the boundaries of individual towns and cities, and as a result, the key relationships between cities and their hinterlands have often been neglected. The chapters in this work focus primarily on the determinants of port-hinterland linkages and analyze these as distinct but interrelated fields of interaction.

Marking a significant contribution to the literature in this field, Port-Cities and their Hinterlands provides essential reading for students and scholars of urban studies, geography, economics, and sociology. It offers a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the complex relationships between cities and their hinterlands, shedding light on the factors that shape these interactions and their implications for urban development and governance.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032139784