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Antwerp International Commercial Hub
In the mid-16th century Antwerp was the largest port of the Habsburg Netherlands and a pan-European trade hub, where Flanders textiles, American silv…
Timeline
- 1561–1565Antwerp port and merchant quarter · AntwerpAntwerp's port handled more spices, cloth, and metal goods than any in Europe, with trading houses and brokerage firms from many nations; Spanish American silver was exchanged here for Flandrian industrial goods re-exported across Europe, and the city's fiscal and credit networks reached their mid-16th-century zenith.
- 1566–1567Antwerp and other cities of the Netherlands · FlandersThe Iconoclastic Fury stirred by Calvinists and Anabaptists swept the city's churches and monasteries; religious unrest combined with a credit crunch led foreign merchants to hold off orders and shipping to be delayed, and Antwerp's political risk premium as an international commercial center rose markedly for the first time.
- 1568–1570Antwerp · AntwerpAfter the Dutch Revolt broke out in 1568, the Spanish Duke of Alba established the Council of Blood to suppress heresy; Protestant merchants and financiers carried capital and loom skills north to Amsterdam and London, beginning Antwerp's long decline as an international commercial center.
Sources
- Van der Wee, Herman. The Growth of the Antwerp Market and the European Economy (14th–16th Centuries) — Herman Van der Wee (1963)
- Britannica: Antwerp https://www.britannica.com/place/Antwerp-Belgium