The essence of an urban place, whether a small market town or a commercial metropolis like London, was trade. Exchange and commerce defined a town, the reason for its separate existence from the county in which it sat. This had implications for demographic patterns, social organization, political structures, and local culture, but it also helped dictate the relationship between central government and borough communities. Towns and cities, though they did not fit comfortably within privileged hierarchies based on land ownership and agriculture, held a special place in the early modern state. Because of their significance to the economic health and growth of the realm, towns received significant attention from the crown, which recognized their importance to the kingdom's prosperity, as well as its orderly governance. The close link between order and profit was widely acknowledged and helped shape urban political culture. As Francis Parlett, recorder of King's Lynn, declared in 1630, “peace [produces] plenty, than which nothing is better and nothing more to be required. For peace is the ornament and plenty the complement of all blessings in a civil state.” King Charles echoed this sentiment in a royal proclamation concerning market measures, saying he desired “by all good meanes to further and advance the peace and plenty of our loving Subjects.” The dual motivators of prosperity and peace organized and energized the government of urban places, from the perspective of both local leaders and central government.

Governance of the commerce that constituted much of town life intertwined deeply with the liberties and privileges granted by the crown in a borough’s charter. Borough corporations enjoyed rights to hold markets, regulate weights and measures, appoint market officials, hold courts of pie powder during market or fair time, and oversee companies that organized crafts and occupations within their liberties. The corporation determined who was (and who could become) a member, with rights to trade freely in a town, and who was a stranger who could be excluded or required to pay tolls. The right to make bylaws that regulated trade and kept order was also a valued corporate liberty. Through charters, the crown placed authority over economic regulation squarely in the hands of the merchants, tradesmen, and craftsmen who largely constituted borough corporations.