Bruges emerges as northern Europe's financial center
1384
The Flemish city's bourse - named for the Van der Beurse family's inn where merchants gathered - formalized commodity trading and money-changing into something resembling a modern exchange. Italian bankers, Hanseatic traders, and Iberian wool merchants converged on Bruges, making it the clearing house of Atlantic and Baltic commerce and the prototype for later financial centers at Antwerp and Amsterdam.
In context
Also in 1384 (4 other events on record)
- John Wycliffe dies a free man · Europe · Religion
- Zhao Mengfu's painting tradition dominates Yuan-Ming transition · East Asia · Culture
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- Jadwiga crowned king of Poland · Europe · Politics
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Politics
Era
Late Middle Ages (1301–1500), one of 874 events from that era on Saeculum.