Amsterdam

===Middle Ages===
[[File:Amsterdam (6578772447).jpg|thumb|left|The [[Oude Kerk, Amsterdam|Oude Kerk]] was consecrated in 1306 AD.]]The bishop of Utrecht granted Amsterdam zone [[City rights in the Low Countries|rights]] in either 1300 or 1306.<ref name="amnlgeschedenis">{{Cite web |title=De geschiedenis van Amsterdam |url=http://amsterdam.nl/stad_in_beeld/geschiedenis/de_geschiedenis_van#Stadsrechten |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080518134246/http://amsterdam.nl/stad_in_beeld/geschiedenis/de_geschiedenis_van |archive-date=18 May 2008 |access-date=21 May 2008 |publisher=Municipality of Amsterdam |language=nl}}</ref> The {{interlanguage link|Mirakel van Amsterdam|nl}} in 1345 rendered the city an important place of [[pilgrimage]]. During the heyday of the ''[[Stille Omgang]]'', which became the expression of the pilgrimage after the [[Protestant Reformation]],<ref>Charles Caspers & Peter Jan Margry, ''Het Mirakel van Amsterdam. Biografie van een betwiste devotie'' (Amsterdam: Prometheus, 2017) pp. 59–60.</ref><ref name="stilleomgang">{{Cite web |title=Mirakel van Amsterdam |url=http://www.trouw.nl/laatstenieuws/laatstenieuws/article936256.ece/Katholieken_verzameld_voor_Mirakel_van_Amsterdam |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090808045508/http://www.trouw.nl/laatstenieuws/laatstenieuws/article936256.ece/Katholieken_verzameld_voor_Mirakel_van_Amsterdam |archive-date=8 August 2009 |access-date=21 May 2008 |language=nl}}</ref> up to 90,000 pilgrims came to Amsterdam.

From the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the [[Hanseatic League]]. From the 15th century on the city established an independent [[Baltic maritime trade (c. 1400–1800)|trade route with the Baltic Sea]] in grain and timber, cutting out the Hanseatic League as middlemen. The city became the staple market of Europe for [[bulk cargo]]. This was made possible due to innovations in the [[Herring|herring fishery]], from which Amsterdam reaped great wealth.<ref name=":7" /> Herring had demand in markets all around Europe. Inventions of on-board [[gibbing]] and the [[Herring buss|haringbuis]] in 1415, made longer voyages feasible, and hence enabled Dutch fishermen to follow the herring [[Shoaling and schooling|shoals]] far from the coasts, giving them a monopoly in the industry.

The herring industry relied on international trade cooperation and large initial investments in ships, which needed many highly skilled and unskilled workers cooperating, which required the import of the necessary raw materials to turn an unfinished product into a marketable one, which required merchants to then sell it throughout the continent and book-keepers and accountants to divide the profit. In short, the herring industry was setting up the foundations for what would later become the transcontinental trade system and the [[Dutch Golden Age]], with Amsterdam at its centre,<ref name=":8" /> hence the saying "Amsterdam is built on Herring bones".<ref name=":9" />