‘Stadtluft macht frei’ went the German saying in the Middle Ages. ‘City air makes free.’
The aphorism was about the thrilling sense of liberty experienced by peasants who moved from rural outposts to the new city states of medieval Europe. Finally emancipated from their feudal overlords, they could join a guild, start a business and do what they wanted, more or less.
That was a long time, though, before the invention of the police, the motor car, tarmacadam and traffic
