Town Hall (Civ3)/Civilopedia

The Middle Ages saw the rise of a new class of people and a new political entity, the town. The middle class were not
noble, yet they were not peasants either. Most were free men of some skill. As towns began to swell with population,
they sought some measures of freedom from the nobles that controlled the land around the towns. The middle class and
townspeople formed two new groups: the guilds, merchants and craftsmen bound together by rules, and the town
council, usually led by mayors or burghers. The Town Hall is a large hall or building belonging to a town, in which
the meetings of the town council are held, and which contains the public offices of the town. The Town Hall is
to the citizens of a town what a manor is to a lord, a central government meeting place, sometimes fortified, and
the nerve center of the community. This new sense of identity, of belonging to a town, and not just a lord or
kingdom, yielded a more intense industry and also made the people more resistant to foreign influences.