A subsequent quarrel deprived Holland of this great advantage.

King Edward refused to assist Count Florence in a war with the Flemings, and transferred the staple from Dort to Bruges and Mechlin.
The trade of the Netherlands with the Mediterranean and the East was mainly through this favored city of Bruges, which, already in the thirteenth century, had risen to the first rank in the commercial world.
It was the resting-place for the Lombards and other Italians, the great entrepot for their merchandise.

It now became, in addition, the great marketplace for English wool, and the woollen fabrics of all the Netherlands, as well as for the drugs and spices of the East.

It had, however, by no means reached its apogee, but was to culminate with Venice, and to sink with her decline.

When the overland Indian trade fell off with the discovery of the Cape passage, both cities withered.