Draw conclusions about Italy's economic decline when competition from English and Flemish cloth makers drove down prices

As both English and Flemish merchants established factories where dozens of artisans could work more efficiently by increasing the production output while decreasing retail prices, they became more competitive in the international trade with Arabic, Indian and other Far Eastern merchants as compared to the Italian merchants who kept on relying on independent artisans producing fewer textile/clothing items at higher retail prices.

This situation favored the English and Flemish merchants who were able to increase and enhance their whole business operations by commissioning the construction of more, bigger and even faster merchant ships, the construction of more factories, hiring more workers which led to a further reduction of the retail prices of their products.

So, while the seeds of pre-industrial production took hold in England and Flanders, the Italians, European leaders of the international trade during the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, fell far behind their competitors and would be forced out of the trade with the Far East making the Italian States fall prey of France, Spain and Austria in the centuries to come.