ABSTRACT
Geographically, Europe’s Atlantic coast and the British Isles may in the year 1500 seem to have been destined to become the centre of a new maritime economic order. Situated between the Baltic and the Mediterranean and conveniently placed at the end of the new trade routes between Europe and Africa, Asia and America, it was an area with a rapidly growing population and an economy favoured by cheap maritime communications. It was hardly a wonder that entrepôts for global and interregional trade, large shipowning centres and dynamic capitalism developed in this region. The opportunities for formation and expansion of economic centres were unusually favourable.
