International Economy in the 'Age of the Discoveries,' 1470-1570: Antwerp and the English Merchants World (Studien zur Gewerbe- und Handelsgeschichte der vorindustriellen Zeit)

The monograph examines the fluctuations of the Anglo-Netherlands financial and goods markets within the changing parameters of a nascent European-based "world economy" (1470-1570). It focuses on the major financial centers of the time (Antwerp and London) and examines their interdependencies, as well as their role as agents financing international trade and commodity flows. In this volume, an attempt is made to examine the world of those English merchants who first accessed the international economy in order to distribute English produce (mainly wool, cloth and lead) and secure such goods as were required by the nation's consumers, such as foreign spices and other exotic consumables. By drawing on financial and macro-economic data, such as prices and exchange rates, as well as micro-data such as individual merchants' accounts, a comprehensive and intimate sketch is drawn of the working mechanisms of an emerging modern, European-centered, world economy.