Commerce, Citizenship, and Identity in Legal History

"Citizenship is a concept that has changed and evolved through the ages. Our modern idea of citizenship as an individual status that implies a generalized ownership of civil, political and social rights is the end point of a long evolution. Bourgeois demands for individual freedoms towards the State brought about the dismantling and dissolution of the structure of feudal society, which was grounded on a community concept of citizenship. The new citizenship was equal for all the inhabitants of a community, whether it was a city, a nation, a state, or a country"--