Trade took place at local, regional and international levels. Major international sea routes ran through the Baltic to the North Sea, with an offshoot to Iceland. The Hansard Kontors at Novgorod, Bergen, Bruges and London epitomise this great trading area, although the Hansards were not the only ones to sail it. Important routes ran along the Channel and Atlantic coasts, linking Bruges to Iberia. The north was also directly linked to the Mediterranean by regular fleets of Italian, Catalan and Basque vessels, and, later, by ships from England and the Low Countries. Equally important routes ran the length of the Mediterranean and into the Black Sea. Major land routes crossed Europe. The north was linked to the Mediterranean through France along the Rhone valley to Marseilles or over the western Alpine passes; through Germany, along the Rhine and over the St Bernard or St Gotthard passes; or further east over the Brenner. Major land routes also ran east-west, with Prague as one of the major junctions. Prague was linked to Bruges and Cologne via Frankfurt/Main, to Venice via Regensburg or Vienna, and to the mouth of the Danube and the Black Sea via Buda. A more northerly east-west route ran from Frankfurt/Main to Wroclaw, and on via Lwow to the Black Sea, its terminus gradually retreating westwards - from Tana to the Crimea, and then to Belgorod (Akkerman) — as instability in the area grew. Other changes took place in the Atlantic. The route to Iceland grew busier and was dominated for a time by the English. More ships ventured to west Africa, to the Canaries, the Azores and Madeira. By the end of the century routes were open to the Americas and round Africa to Asia, although, as yet, they were commercially unimportant.
Map 2 European commerce and trade
Besides major routes, many minor land, river and coastal routes existed, appropriate to regional and local trade. The multiplicity of routes allowed merchants to bypass war-zones or areas of increasing tolls, and to take advantage of improved roads, bridges and passes. Almost all had a seamless relevance to international trade, since along them flowed the produce, victuals and raw materials which sustained that trade directly, or which fed the people and industries of towns which organised and produced for it.
Luxury goods circulating on international routes were only the tip of the commercial iceberg. Semi-luxuries such as wine, raw materials such as alum, dyes, wool, iron, tin and copper, and necessities such as grain, timber, fish, salt and beer were carried in international as well as regional and local trade. Commodities were drawn from Europe, Asia and Africa, and to this extent fifteenth-century Europe was already a ‘world economy’, the epitome of which (until its replacement by Antwerp) was Bruges, where Baltic furs, Icelandic stockfish, English cloth, Polish grain, Iberian wine, Florentine silk and Indian spices could be purchased. But through many major towns, from Lisbon to Cracow, a wide selection of internationally produced goods flowed on into smaller provincial towns.
Merchants matched commodities to their markets: Italians bought English cloth differently for Tunis or Egypt, and Toulouse merchants ordered specific English reds for their customers. Producers responded to changing demands, as when fustian weaving spread in southern Germany, and developed new industries to satisfy those with surplus cash; two instances being the use of bronze for cannon, which stimulated the armaments trade, and the development of printing, which led to a speculative book trade. The desire of both merchants and producers to maintain profits in difficult times stimulated cheaper production through specialisation or increased use of new technology (the spinning wheel and blast furnace).