Vicissitudes of Commercial Trading: Castile and Flanders at the End of the Fifteenth Century (1474-94) Gloria Cristina Flórez* * Escuela de Historia, Universidad Nacional de San Marcos and Universidad de Lima, Peru. Email: acflorez@terra.com.pe Since the thirteenth century, the kingdom of Castile has brought into being an important commercial development relating to wool (thanks to the well-known sea route Carrera a Flandes), connected the Cantab- rian, Atlantic and the North Seas, and established a close link between Burgos and Bruges. By the end of the fifteenth century, even as the Castilian maritime traffic was favoured by the the Castilian mercantile associations and the creation of the consulate of Burgos, it yet showed the vicissitudes induced by political and economic conjunctures. This implied the decay of wool trade and the above-mentioned cities. Medieval precedents nevertheless exercised a strong presence in the Spanish colonial trade in America or Carrera de Indias. Flemish and Castilian Economies The impact of the Great Depression in the fourteenth century affected the prosperous Flemish economy of the preceding centuries. First, commercial trends changed and especially luxury industries such as tapestries and cloth were adversely affected, being displaced by other, cheaper goods. Second, their textile industry faced a serious problem of the shortage of supplies of English wool and had to work with