ABSTRACT
The reconstruction of connections over long distances was already a challenging task, since travelling meant crossing borders presented by geographical, economic, political, religious, cultural and linguistic entities. National historiographical traditions and the specific skills needed to access and interpret the sources have fragmented the research area and made an all-encompassing view of European maritime connections rare. The Northern European maritime system got connected directly to the Southern European system, with London and Bruges as the main nodal points. Around 1300, the European economic system went through a commercial revolution that included a transport revolution, whereby maritime connections became intensified, and focused increasingly on bulk cargoes of foodstuffs and reaching out over longer routes. The breakthrough around 1300 came at the peak of European population growth that had lasted more than three centuries, and arrived at the outset of a century with perhaps the most dramatic population losses in human history.
