Some historians of Kansas City claim, with an arresting simplicity, that the principal reason for that city's growth and prosperity is to be found in the enterprise of its citizens. And, although enterprise is by no means a self-explanatory notion, it seems a compellingly obvious way to account for the circumstances of the city's formative years. Much of that history can be written around a series of crises of decision, urgent moments when poor judgment, or the faulty execution of policy, might have plunged the city into obscurity or downright decadence. Yet such was the city's good fortune, we are told, that at precisely these times brilliant leadership seems always to have been forthcoming, and enterprising men—usually businessmen—can be discerned standing in the storm center pointing the way to safety and success.

This article deals with the interrelations between the economyand the government of the expanding Spanish empire in the era of overseas expansion during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Specifically, it attempts to show how the government reacted to the phenomenon of the growing empire. In a full treatment it would be necessary to show how the various Spanish territories of the Peninsula were unified by the process of the “reconquista” and by the marriage policy of the Catholic Icings; how during the sixteenth century Navarre and Portugal were joined; how the overseas expansion of Spanish power, beginning in the late Middle Ages, continued during the sixteenth century; and how Spain, as a consequence of Hapsburg marriage policy, built an important bridge of possessions from the Netherlands to Italy. Obviously, these questions cannot be dealt with in detail in one article, but they form the background for the following discussion.

Since 1951 the population, social structure, and economy of Norristown, Pennsylvania, have been the focus of study of an interdisciplinary research seminar at the University of Pennsylvania. Under the over-all theme of technological change and social adjustment, a variety of investigations have been conducted to discover the ways in which the processes of industrialization and urbanization in the twentieth century have operated dynamically to bring about changes in the social and economic structure of the Norristown community.