This book has attempted to examine the role of commerce and trade links in the development of Cracow from its origins to 1795. The approach has been that of an historical geographer, who has strived to reconstruct the geography of past times through the utilisation of historical data combined with a geographical spatial methodology. This has inevitably involved the use of maps in the cartographical presentation of results. The map is foremost a tool, but is also an expression of thinking in terms of areal distribution. Throughout the work emphasis has been placed on the spatial impact of commercial distribution to try and discover the territorial extent of Cracow's influence on European trade over time, a similar strategy to that adopted by the author in an earlier study of the city-state of Dubrovnik (Ragusa).

The period chosen for this review has stretched from the city's earliest trade contacts through to the end of the eighteenth century, when Cracow came under Austrian control in 1795 as a result of the Third Partition of Poland. Cracow, blessed with an advantageous natural position on the crossroads of several routeways, and a safe haven of refuge, went through the embryonic stages of commercial development between the ninth and thirteenth centuries. By the twelfth century, the city already contained a much-frequented market, and the flowering of its commercial prosperity was to steer Cracow towards European recognition as a significant emporium during the ensuing centuries. This lasted until the eighteenth century, by which time much of its former trading glory had disappeared, whilst the various partitions of Poland during the latter decades disrupted the smooth functioning of even her regional trade.