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Antwerp International Trade Hub

Type Object Region Low Countries Time c. 1500–1585

In the 1540s Antwerp was one of Europe's largest commercial cities, where goods of northern and southern Europe and of the Old and New Worlds converg…

Timeline

  1. c. 1500–1540Antwerp · Habsburg NetherlandsAfter the port of Bruges silted up, trade shifted to Antwerp at the mouth of the Scheldt, where Portuguese spice ships and German caravans converged; the exchange and guild system were perfected, and the city rapidly became northern Europe's foremost commercial center.
  2. c. 1541–1550Antwerp · Habsburg NetherlandsIn the 1540s Antwerp's population was estimated at over 100,000, and its exchange daily gathered merchants from England, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and elsewhere; silver from the Americas was transshipped here via Spain and redistributed to Central Europe, and its printing and mapmaking ranked among Europe's best, making it the economic heart of the Habsburg Low Countries.
  3. c. 1566–1585Antwerp · Habsburg NetherlandsThe Dutch Revolt and religious division disrupted the commercial environment; after the Spanish siege and fall of the city in 1585 the Scheldt was closed, and large numbers of Protestant merchants and bankers moved to Amsterdam, ending Antwerp's status as Europe's foremost trading center.

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