It has been estimated that roughly 85 percent of the population of all civilized societies throughout history consisted of agricultural food producers, while the remaining 15 percent consisted of the urban professionals who made civilized society possible. And every ancient city found it necessary to control the movement of goods and people between the countryside and the city, to ensure that there would always be a large and reliable supply of food for the city dwellers—and that the people of the countryside could rely on the cities for the products, services, and military protection upon
...more