Brugge is the place where capitalism and free enterprise were born in the 13th century. From Brugge it migrated all over Flanders, to Holland during the religious wars of the 16th centrury and eventually to New York and America in the 17th century.
The first Bourse (stock-exchange and money exchange) was created in Brugge in the 13th century, when merchants of all of the known world (Italy in the South, Hamburg, Stockholm and other Baltic harbor cities, London, Paris …) met each other every morning in the pub of the VandeBeurzen family in the center of medieval Brugge. There they joined forces to attempt daring ventures, they agreed on prices for their commodities, and there they agreed on common value for all their different currencies.
The family Vanderbeurze gave its name to the generic name of all future stock and money exchanges: Beurze, Bourse. Next time you buy stock have a Brugse Zot. Capitalism started in a pub in Brugge.

In the 11th and 12th century the kings were weak in the Western part of Europe, and the cities managed and dared to be more independent. When a king is weak, the people rule. When freedom reins, free enterprise or capitalism creates wealth for all. So much wealth that the citizens of Flanders became the richest merchants in the world, and Flanders became the center of the commercial world, and the art center of its time.
Not just the Flemish cities like Ieper, Brugge and Gent, but small towns boomed as well. Even a place like Gent, for example, had more people living within its walls than Paris. When the French king and queen visited Brugge, they were shocked to see that the wife of every merchant was better and richer dressed than the queen. From that day on, the French geo policy has been to capture Flanders and incorporate it in France. Many imperialistic wars have been fought by the French for this purpose, starting in the early 14th century up to Napoleon in the early 19th century.
Gradually, France managed to capture half of Flanders. Louis XIV captured the largest part. North West France was, at one point in time, part of Flanders. One French Department (Province) is called Flandre (Flanders), but a large territory to the east and south of that Department is also historic Flanders.

Newsletter june/July 2006