stock exchange was opened as early as 1531, a model for London and Amsterdam. In addition, the great rivers Meuse and Scheldt facilitated the transport of goods and efficient agriculture provided the large

The network of roads was expanded, and in 1756 the Grand Canal was opened, linking Dublin with the River Shannon, the north-south axis of the island. Belfast developed into a centre for trade, attracting

became a leading financial and administrative centre there were textile factories on the banks of the River Alzette. As so often these were the forerunners of industrialisation. In 1828 the Godchaux brothers [...] Collieries were set up, above all by Belgian firms, and the quiet villages in the valley of the River Korn were transformed into working class housing estates. A new railway line was built to transport

toxins that collected in rivers and deposited on plants. While contemporaries had long been blind to air pollution, by the end of the 19th century the stench and discolouration of rivers and the damage to forestry [...] economic crises hampered research into environmental degradation, let alone the fight against it. In the rivers of Europe's mining and industrial regions, whether the Tawe in Wales, the Rio Tinto in Spain or the