When did towns and cities in the Netherlands begin to grow and prosper as industrial & trade cities?
The cities began to grow from the moment there was enough food. The development of new agricultural techniques resulted in a population surplus that went living in the cities. The cities then grew, or the dukes, (first Flanders, then Brabant, then Holland) founded new cities. That was about 700 years ago. Then of course the cities began to demand rights, which they got and they could grow and rule their own. The Netherlands, where the regions stretched from east to west while the rivers went from the south to the north. So the regions became entangled economically very soon. This in combination with a great surplus of food and population creates a great place to trade and work on crafts. Later the Netherlands would import food from other places.( From France and the Baltic regions. ) The basically same happened much later in Britain, technology was advanced and allowed the invention of machines. Those machines where smuggled to Belgium during the first Belgian independence and the Fren
