How does the existence of a large urban population affect each of the following? Illustrate with historical examples.
(a) A private landlord.
(b) A Police Superintendent in charge of law and order.
(c) A leader of a political party.
(a) A private landlord: Factory or workshop owners did not house the migrant workers. Instead, individual landowners put up cheap, and usually unsafe, tenements for the new arrivals.
(b)A Police Superintendent: For a Police Superintendent, crime became an object of widespread concern. So the population of criminals was counted, their activities were watched, and their ways of life were investigated. They attempted to discipline the population, imposed high penalties for crime and offered work to those who were considered the ‘deserving poor’.
(c)A leader of a political party: Large masses of people could be drawn into political causes in the city. A large city population was thus both a threat and an opportunity. State authorities went to great lengths to reduce the possibility of rebellion and enhance urban aesthetics, as the example of Paris shows.
