The theme in room 7 is money and trade. The many inns and hotels were the linchpin of trading activities in Bruges. They provided the infrastructure for trade. Innkeepers and hoteliers were middlemen who not only provided people with accommodation, but also stored goods, put merchants in touch with one another and facilitated transactions... One such Bruges hotelier family was called Van der Beurze. The word 'beurs' - Dutch for stock exchange - is derived from their name.

The money literally rolled into Bruges: the display cabinet contains a box with a weighing scale and weights. They were used to weigh coins to prove their value and authenticity. Or to expose them if they were counterfeit or too light.

This intense money trade resulted in the emergence of new institutions, professions, products and paperwork: supporting documents and bookkeeping... Like the receipt, an example of which is displayed here, a waiver of debt.

Infrastructure, goods, money, and enterprising people from various corners of the world: 15th-century Bruges had it all. Italian traders played a major role in the development of money dealings. What's more, there were lots of traders from Spain, Portugal, England, and Northern and Eastern European cities that Bruges worked closely with, the so-called Hanseatic cities. This intense activity provided an unprecedented boost for the city.

Bruges was a hub for international trade and was therefore an attractive city for the Dukes of Burgundy. Key to this trade were numerous luxury products. The screen in this room gives you an idea of the trade routes and shows the diverse products that found their way to Bruges from all over the world, and which were then shipped elsewhere.

You will also find a few objects made from amber. Amber is a resin that flowed from pine trees millions of years ago and fossilised. It produced a soft rock that is warm yellow to dark red in colour. It is mainly found in the Baltic Sea region and was already used to produce luxury objects in antiquity. In a moment you will be able to feel amber and other materials in the tactile element.

In the Middle Ages, Bruges was given the international privilege of working amber, along with the German city of Lübeck. Craftsmen used it to make beads for rosaries, among other things. They used the leftovers to produce varnish. Amber processing in Bruges flourishes mainly in the 14th century. After this, the price of amber rises and in 1420, Bruges loses its privilege.

You will also discover examples of other luxury products here, such as a copper memorial plaque, part of a diptych in ivory, splendid manuscripts and Spanish pottery. And a corbel, an oblong-shaped piece of flat wood that sticks out of the wall and supports the end of a beam. It decorated Sint-Jansweeghuis, where cloth was weighed and its quality assessed. In the 1200s, it was the trade in wool and cloth that made Bruges great. This laid the foundations for the city’s subsequent heyday.

On this rectangular tactile panel you can explore five costly materials used to produce luxury products. The materials are processed wood, processed leather, tin-glazed earthenware, alabaster and amber. In the tactile panel there are circular openings containing the materials.

We start at the top on the left. In the first opening you feel some processed wood. The wood is brown and the wood grain runs through the fragment.

If you move slightly to the right you will find the second material, more or less in the middle of the panel. This is processed leather; it is deep black, even darker than the tactile panel.

A little to the right, almost at the edge of the panel you will feel the tin-glazed earthenware or faïence, the third material. The earthenware is a very light colour with speckles here and there.

Those were the first three materials, which occupy fairly large circular openings in the panel. The next two materials are contained in smaller circular spaces. If you move your hands from the earthenware you just touched, a little way down and to the left, you will find the alabaster. This material is also very light, almost white in colour.

The last material is amber, and you will find it if you move your hands a little to the left from the circle containing the alabaster. The amber is also contained in a small circular space. The material has a warm yellow colour with darker specks inside and it reflects the light.

This concludes the tactile exploration of the costly materials. The luxury products they were used to produce were made or traded in Bruges.

If you would like to stay in this room for a while and continue listening go to number 19. The next element you can explore corresponds to number 22 in the audio guide, found on the next floor. Turn left and climb the stairs. Once you reach the first floor, turn right and enter the next room. Please be careful of the step. The tactile element is located on the right, on the first table right in front of you.

The flourishing international trade hub of Bruges attracted people from other countries, who also came and settled here: craftsmen, artists and many traders and their families.

You are now standing in front of the portrait of the Spaniard Juan Lopez Gallo with his three sons. The portrait, oil on panel, which dates back to 1568, is circa half a metre wide and almost a metre high. The kneeling client who commissioned the portrait is Juan Lopez Gallo, wearing his armour and gazing out at the spectator. He is a balding man with a dark beard and moustache, and is depicted with his arms folded across his chest. Behind him are his three sons, the two oldest also wearing their armour. All four are praying. The prayer stool is decorated with the family's coat of arms. Traders such as Lopez Gallo stayed for a long time or moved permanently to Bruges. They integrated in the local elite and also enjoyed showing off their identity and origin. For example, in portraits, in this case by the prominent Bruges artist Pieter Pourbus. Or by having prestigious tapestries produced in Bruges, featuring their family's coat of arms. The well-to-do immigrants also purchase and commission many luxury Bruges' products, which served as status symbols.

Documentary evidence was left behind, which is also on display in the museum. The so-called 'nations' were extremely important. They were a kind of state, a nation, in the city. The idea was that traders and merchants from the same region or country united in a nation. Each of these nations had its own nation house. Their presence still echoes in Bruges' place names: Spaanse Loskaai or Spanish Wharf, Engelse Straat or English Street, Biskajersplein or Biscay Square … A nation obtained privileges from the city. The documents attest to this. Bruges liked to maintain good relations with the powerful nations, after all, they generated economic activity and considerable wealth.

The nations theme concludes our time in this room and on this floor. Take the stairs to the next floor, which is dedicated to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.