Which countries in Europe were the most heavily into maritime trading in industrial age besides Holland?
By the industrial age Britain was by far and away the worlds largest maritime trader, Spain had faded since the 15th century and by the end of the 16th was bankrupt and unable to produce either ships or crews in any numbers, Holland was over taken by England in the mid-17th Century as again Holland started to struggle to keep up. To give you some idea of how far in front the UK was against everyone else here is a little fact for you by 1914 = 90% of the whole worlds ships were British the rest of the worlds fleets made up the other 10% Neither Ireland or Scotland had much in the way of ships at any time during their history. The English had powerful fleets back in Saxon times and just continued to invest in them throughout its history.
