Water, Public Hygiene and Fire Control in Medieval Towns: Facing Collective Goods Problems while Ensuring the Quality of Life

Abstract

Wasser, ?ffentliche Hygiene und Brandschutz: Zum Problem des Managements lebensstandardrelevanter Kollektivg?ter in der mittelalterlichen Stadt?. Clean water, neat streets and fire prevention determined the quality of life also in medieval towns. While ensuring an environment worth living citizens were faced with collective goods prob lems. As a result of the environmentally harmful urban way of life common-pool resources like waters and streets were over-exploited, polluted and degraded. This urban tragedy of the commons was even more complicated, as public hy giene and fire prevention, both necessary to cope with pol lution and fire hazard, were public goods and their realisa tion caused a public goods dilemma. Due to coordination efforts - municipal administration, transfer of property rights, enhancement of voluntary cooperations and regula tions - common-pool resources like water and infrastructure could be provided, but municipal authorities barely suc ceeded in enforcing polluters to internalise the social costs of their behaviour and managing the supply of public pre ventive goods. Differently from the suggestion made in the concept of Environmental Kuznets Curve emergence of en vironmental externalities and treatment of communal risks were not only related to economic development, but also to