Lowered Population

[Arundel]

Indeed.

Cities were quite small back then. The medieval ages were caractarized by its rural populations.

From the link,

"12th Century Constantinople had a population of 400,000 which is more like what I think of as a city. Baghdad had everyone beat in the high middle ages(2) by having a population of 1.2 million people. Chang'an during the Tang dynasty is said to be even bigger which is just typical of the Chinese and their competitive one-upmanship."

I consider Constantinople to be a more model-like city for BM because a lot of people play with religious tolerance and other such things. Much like what Constantinople was before and after the Turkish invasion. And though the link says the population of Paris is 'exagerated', Wikipedia and other sources, like this one (http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/westtech/x14thc.htm) on the black plague, reaffirm a 100k+ population.

This ties into the 'culture' aspect of this thread as well, wondering if being 'Far East' meant Oriental or Asiatic. If it were, much like the Chinese, we would have larger populations irregardless.

Concluding point: more people in cities.