After the decline of Venice as a world trade power Lisbon remained the captive of a certain world- economy into which the city was already integrated and in which it had a fixed place; if one remembers too that northern Europe had not ceased to weigh heavily in the balance; that the centre of gravity of the entire continent was tending - not without good cause -   to shift northwards; and last but not least, that something like nine out of ten consumers of pepper and spices lived in the north.

Antwerp  stood at the crossroads of northern trade and exchange and was in fact the successor to Venice. During the 'age of the Fugger bankers, which was actually the age of Antwerp, this city was the centre of the entire international economy.  Antwerp was not simply taking over from her nearest rival, Bruges, although like Bruges, the city was created by outside agency. It was the alteration of world trade routes and the beginnings of an Atlantic economy at the end of the fifteenth century which decided the future of Antwerp.  By the time Antwerp fell to the siege of  by Alexander Farnese, Duke of Palma, her economy was only a sixth of what it had been at its peak in 1545.  Her place as the global market was taken by Amsterdam.