<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Commercial Revolution consisted in the creation of a European economy based on trade, which began in the 11th century and lasted until it was succeeded by the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century . Beginning with the Crusades, Europeans rediscovered spices, silks, and other commodities rare in Europe . This development created a new desire for trade, and trade expanded in the second half of the Middle Ages . Newly forming European states, through voyages of discovery, were looking for alternative trade routes in the 15th and 16th centuries, which allowed the European powers to build vast, new international trade networks . Nations also sought new sources of wealth and practiced mercantilism and colonialism . The Commercial Revolution is marked by an increase in general commerce, and in the growth of financial services such as banking, insurance, and investing . </P> <P> The term itself was coined in the middle of the 20th century, by economic historian Roberto Sabatino Lopez, to shift focus away from the English Industrial Revolution . In his best - known book, The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages (1971, with numerous reprints), Lopez argued that the key contribution of the medieval period to European history was the creation of a commercial economy between the 10th and the 14th century, centered at first in the Italo - Byzantine eastern Mediterranean, but eventually extending to the Italian city - states and over the rest of Europe . This kind of economy ran from approximately the 14h century through the 18th century . Walt Whitman Rostow placed the beginning "arbitrarily" in 1488, the year the first European sailed around the Cape of Good Hope . Most historians, including scholars such as Robert S. Lopez, Angeliki Laiou, Irving W. Raymond, and Peter Spufford indicate that there was a commercial revolution of the 11th - 12th centuries, or that it began at this point, rather than later . </P>

One effect of the commercial revolution on europe was to