← Explore on the interactive map
Bill of Exchange System
The 16th-century European bill of exchange was a commercial-financial mechanism settling debts across distances or borders via written credit instrum…
Timeline
- c. 1591–1595Antwerp · AntwerpIn the early 1590s Antwerp merchants settled cross-border payments to Lyon, Genoa, and elsewhere through bills of exchange, with exchange houses quoting spot and forward rates so that large spice and textile trades need not carry heavy specie aboard ship.
- c. 1596–1600Amsterdam · North HollandIn the later 1590s the Amsterdam exchange and Jewish-Italian merchant networks took on large volumes of bill business, linking Baltic grain, Iberian silver, and Mediterranean trade through written endorsement and rediscounting, making the bill system the financial foundation of northern commercial expansion.
Sources
- Bill of exchange https://www.britannica.com/money/bill-of-exchange
- The Rise of Merchant Banking — Raymond de Roover (1963)