ABSTRACT
During the fifteenth century, Bruges was the European city with the largest commercial output. The products of the crafts were rivaled in quality only by Florence, and the merchants dominated financial commerce due to the exchange fairs that brought other merchants from around Europe to the city (Upton 1995). The number of burghers who were able to elect and to serve as city officials was kept small through entry fees and admission controls (Blockmans 1995). Bruges was also the court city of the Dukes of Burgundy in their Netherlandish territories. Around 1500, the channel of the Zwin River began to silt. Rather rapidly, economic leadership migrated to Antwerp, which dominated the trade in spices, sugar, and—later in the sixteenth century—textiles. It is estimated that 40 percent of world trade went through Antwerp (Tellier 2009: 308). The city also became Europe’s premier financial center. Its stock exchange, the boers, became the role model for modern exchange institutions. Religious strife after 1560, and the subsequent repression by the Spanish crown, led to a decline in population and production during the following century (Vermeylen 2003; Voet 1973).
