The city of Antwerp played a crucial role in the history of the Habsburg Empire of Charles V as a distribution center of long-distance trade, where colonial products, such as sugar, spices and precious metals were exchanged against textiles and a broad variety of luxury commodities. At the same time it was of great importance as a financial center, where the emperor could find the necessary credit for its ambitious political plans. Antwerp had a long tradition as port city as well as a center of fairs, but it was at the onset of the sixteenth century, that it christallized as the meeting point of the leading commercial actors of the moment, the Portuguese, who had just discovered the maritime route to India, the Southern Germans, with the precious metals they imported from the Alps and Central Europe, the English with their cloth, together with Spaniards, Italians and many others. During its Golden Age, Antwerp became a thriving metropolis, of more than 100 000 inhabitants, thousands of merchants, both foreign and local, artisans, and numerous outstanding artists and intellectuals. The municipal government made great efforts to provide the city with an adequate infrastructure, both in terms of architecture, by building new city walls or port infrastructure, as well as in terms of commercial institutions. The splendor of Antwerp was such that many contemporaries spoke of it in utmost admiration. However the religious and political conflicts of the late sixteenth century brought its Golden Age to a sudden end, only few years after reaching its apogee. As a result of the Dutch Revolt, many merchants left Antwerp, the city lost almost half its population and its commerce declined. In the seventeenth- and eighteenth century, Antwerp remained a port city with a considerable commercial and financial activity, but it would in no way equal places such as Amsterdam and London
