=140. Effect on commerce of a strong and of a weak central government.=—In a country in which the cities established complete independence they seemed for a time to have gained by throwing off the royal power. Each city could control its affairs and shape its policy to suit local interests; and the great cities of Italy and Germany before the close of the Middle Ages were the most advanced and prosperous parts of Europe. Though they controlled only small areas of land they had great resources from their commerce, and even in war could hold their own with the feudal lords fighting in the old-fashioned way. They were strong enough to fight a feudal lord; they were not, however, strong enough to fight a modern king. While they were building up their power at the expense of rival cities and at the expense of the country districts, the kings of lands to the west of them were quietly engaged in uniting all the cities and the country districts, too, under one rule. The cities in France and England seemed for a time to lose, because they were forced by the kings to make concessions to each other and to the country districts. When, however, they had become used to consider themselves as only parts of a bigger whole, the nation, they found that their sovereign was far better fitted to represent their interests and further their progress than any one of them was individually. The struggle of the independent cities of Italy and Germany against the national states of England, Spain, and France was not decided until after the discovery of America and the sea-route to Asia, when the national organization proved decisively its superiority to the municipal.