From Antwerp in the sixteenth century to Amsterdam in the seventeenth century, to London in the nineteenth century and, finally, to New York in the twentieth century.
There is now talk of an “Asian century” based on the belief that, if ongoing demographic and economic trends persist, the twenty-first century will see a shift in the centre of gravity of the global economy to Asia. I leave it up to you to assess which city in this vast region might become the capital of the new “economie-monde”, should this development materialise.