The economy of Antwerp in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had a very special dynamism. It underwent the processes of rise, expansion, maturity and decadence with peculiar intensity. It gave an impressive stimulus to the commercial currents, maritime and contin­ ental, which converged on the town. It inspired the appearance and growth of new institutions and intensified changes in the social and economic structure. It was the heart of commerce, industry and agricul­ ture for a large area and particularly of Brabant, Flanders and Zeeland. Moreover Antwerp's economy was an important, and sometimes even the principal, artery of the whole European economy. Antwerp's dynamism was not purely irrational : numerous factors, which a detailed analysis allowed us to ascertain, forced its