into account the powers enjoyed by city governments in the Low Countries, which were both ample but also constrained by the central government, the authors trace the development of one particular type of contract and transaction -sixteenthcentury marine insurance, a growing sector for which Antwerp became the key centre. By laying bare the negotiation process which preceded the compromise, they find that decisions on the legislation regarding marine insurance were both politically and economically induced. The three major agents (merchants, city government and central government) were not monolithic blocs: within the Antwerp mercantile community different opinions on marine insurance and its legislation could be heard.There were 'national' differences and small-time insurance purchasers thought differently about state legislation than their larger colleagues and insurers. Parties with political clout also had a stronger voice in negotiations. Antwerpen (c. 1550Antwerpen (c. -c. 1570 De wetgeving rond economische praktijken in de zestiende-eeuwse Nederlanden werd in belangrijke mate bepaald door de complexe interactie tussen verschillende belangengroepen (economische agenten, stedelijke overheid en centraal gezag). De kunst van het compromis. Onderhandelingen over wetgeving voor het zeeverzekeringswezen in article -artikelDave De ruysscher en Jeroen Puttevils zijn van mening dat top-down (de vorst legt zijn regels op) en bottum-up modellen (kooplieden willen hun

This article studies the distribution of exports from mid‐sixteenth‐century Antwerp at the individual and group level (grouped by merchant origin). Recently, scholars have argued that sixteenth‐century Antwerp, and in its wake a series of other cities, hosted an open‐access market as a result of an evolution towards open‐access institutions. However, the direct effect of this institutional change on merchant enterprise is hard to measure. Relying on detailed tax records, preferences at the individual merchant level for particular destinations and commodities are documented, to evaluate whether exporters had equal chances in Antwerp's export market. A few exporters had large export shares next to a multitude of smaller merchants. The exports of these smaller merchants to distant destinations and their participation in the export of important products demonstrate a fairly level commercial playing field with regard to their larger‐scale colleagues. Foreign traders had access to trade in Low Countries products, while local merchants were active in the export of major transit products. The activities of the latter group are particularly important; contrary to previous literature, Low Countries traders did not differ in their preference for home‐grown products.

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This article discusses the use of private promissory notes in the sixteenth-century commercial metropolis of Antwerp. Students of financial history tend to look for first instances of financial techniques and institutions such as bills of exchange, share trading, sovereign debt and banks. However, financial innovation can also be found in the piecemeal adaptation of an older, existing technique, institution or instrument as the result of changes in the market and of demands exerted by particular groups within that economy. The outcome of this process is determined by the structure of the economy in question, its institutional arrangements and the willingness of authorities to adapt the rules.