Trade route
German merchant towns led by Lübeck linked the Baltic and the North Sea, with offices at Novgorod, Bergen, Bruges and London. Furs, wax, grain and timber went west, cod came from Bergen, and Flemish and English cloth went east.
The Hanseatic League, commonly called The Hansa, was a medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from Lübeck and a few other North German towns in the late 12th century, the league expanded between the 13th and 15th centuries, ultimately encompassing nearly 200 settlements across eight modern-day countries, from Estonia and Russia in the northeast to the Netherlands in the west, with its inland extent reaching as far south as Cologne.
The league began as a collection of loosely associated groups of German traders and towns aiming to expand their commercial interests, including protection against robbery. Over time, these arrangements evolved into the league, offering traders toll privileges and protection on affiliated territory and trade routes. Economic interdependence and familial connections among merchant families led to deeper political integration and the reduction of trade barriers. This gradual process involved standardizing trade regulations among Hanseatic cities.
During its time, the Hanseatic League dominated maritime trade in the North and Baltic Seas. It established a network of trading posts in numerous towns and cities, notably the Kontors in London (known as the Steelyard), Bruges, Bergen, and Novgorod, which became extraterritorial entities that enjoyed considerable legal autonomy. Hanseatic merchants operated private companies and were known for their access to commodities, and enjoyed privileges and protections abroad. The league's economic power enabled it to impose blockades and even wage war against kingdoms and principalities.
Even at its peak, the Hanseatic League remained a loosely aligned confederation of cities. It lacked a permanent administrative body, a treasury, and a standing military force. The Grand Master of the Teutonic Order was often seen as the head of the Hansa (caput Hansae), both abroad and by some League members. The Teutonic Order was an official member of the Hanseatic League, unique as the only autonomous landed state to hold membership, while other members were cities or individual merchants. The Order and the Hanseatic League had a close economic and military interdependency, with many important Hanseatic trading ports falling within the Order's territories, and the Order itself played a role in protecting and organizing Baltic trade networks.
In the 14th century, the Hanseatic League instated an irregular negotiating diet that operated based on deliberation and consensus. By the mid-16th century, these weak connections left the Hanseatic League vulnerable, and it gradually unraveled as members merged into other realms or departed, ultimately disintegrating in 1669.
The league used a variety of vessel types for shipping across the seas and navigating rivers. The most emblematic type was the cog. Expressing diversity in construction, it was depicted on Hanseatic seals and coats of arms. By the end of the Middle Ages, the cog was replaced by types like the hulk, which later gave way to larger carvel ships.
Hansa is the Old High German word for a band or troop. This word was applied to bands of merchants traveling between the Hanseatic cities. Hanse in Middle Low German came to mean a society of merchants or a trader guild. Claims that it originally meant An-See, or 'on the sea', are incorrect.
Exploratory trading ventures, raids, and piracy occurred throughout the Baltic Sea. The Scandinavians led the Baltic trade before the league, establishing major trading hubs at Birka, Haithabu, and Schleswig by the 9th century CE. The later Hanseatic ports between Mecklenburg and Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad) originally formed part of the Scandinavian-led Baltic trade system. The sailors of Gotland sailed up rivers as far away as Novgorod in northwestern Russia. The Gothic court was founded around the turn of the 12th century, and following the establishment of major trade centres in the Baltic, Novgorod gradually became a major trade power.
As the Hanseatic League was never formally founded, it lacks a date of foundation. Historians have traditionally traced its origins to the rebuilding of the north German town of Lübeck in 1159 by the powerful Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, after he had captured the area from Adolf II, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein. More recent scholarship has deemphasized Lübeck, viewing it as one of several regional trading centers, and presenting the league as the combination of a north German trading system oriented on the Baltic and a Rhinelandic trading system targeting England and Flanders.
German cities speedily dominated trade in the Baltic during the 13th century, and Lübeck became a central node in the seaborne trade that linked the areas around the North and Baltic Seas. Lübeck hegemony peaked during the 15th century.
Well before the term Hanse appeared in a document in 1267, in different cities began to form guilds, or hansas, with the intention of trading with overseas towns, especially in the economically less-developed eastern Baltic. This area could supply timber, wax, amber, resins, and furs, along with rye and wheat brought on barges from the hinterland to port markets. Merchant guilds formed in hometowns and destination ports as medieval corporations (universitates mercatorum), and despite competition increasingly cooperated to coalesce into the Hanseatic network of merchant guilds. The dominant language of trade was Middle Low German, which had a significant impact on the languages spoken in the area, particularly the larger Scandinavian languages, Estonian, and Latvian.
Visby, on the island of Gotland, functioned as the leading center in the Baltic before the Hansa. Sailing east, Visby merchants established a trading post at Novgorod called Gutagard (also known as Gotenhof) in 1080. In 1120, Gotland gained autonomy from Sweden and admitted traders from its southern and western regions. Thereafter, under a treaty with the Visby Hansa, northern German merchants made regular stops at Gotland. Visby became a major transfer stop, particularly for trade with Novgorod, which was the chief Russian market. In the first half of the 13th century, they established their own trading station or Kontor in Novgorod, known as the Peterhof, up the river Volkhov.
Lübeck soon became a base for merchants from Saxony and Westphalia trading eastward and northward; for them, because of its shorter and easier access route and better legal protections, it was more attractive than Schleswig. It became a transshipment port for trade between the North Sea and the Baltics. Lübeck also granted extensive trade privileges to Russian and Scandinavian traders. It was the main supply port for the Northern Crusades, improving its standing with various Popes. Lübeck gained privileges to become a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire in 1226, under King Valdemar II of Denmark, as had Hamburg in 1189. Also in this period Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, and Danzig received city charters.
Hansa societies worked to remove trade restrictions for their members. The earliest documentary mention (although without a name) of a specific German commercial federation dates between 1173 and 1175 (commonly misdated to 1157) in London. That year, the merchants of the Hansa in Cologne convinced King Henry II of England to exempt them from all tolls in London and to grant protection to merchants and goods throughout England.
German colonists in the 12th and 13th centuries settled in numerous cities on and near the east Baltic coast, such as Elbing (Elbląg), Thorn (Toruń), Reval (Tallinn), Riga, and Dorpat (Tartu), all of which joined the league, and some of which retain Hansa buildings and bear the style of their Hanseatic days. Most adopted Lübeck law, after the league's most prominent town. The law provided that they appeal in all legal matters to Lübeck's city council. Others, like Danzig from 1295 onwards, had Magdeburg law or its derivative, Culm law. The foundations of a new German state, the Teutonic Order, were laid with the acquisition of Livonia and later Estonia. The Grand Master of the Teutonic Order was later accepted as a member of the Hanseatic League and he was the only territorial prince to enjoy this privilege.
Over the 13th century, older and wealthier long-distance traders increasingly chose to settle in their hometowns as trade leaders, transitioning from their previous roles as landowners. The growing number of settled merchants afforded long-distance traders greater influence over town policies. Coupled with an increased presence in the ministerial class, this elevated the status of merchants and enabled them to expand to and assert dominance over more cities. This decentralized arrangement was fostered by slow travel speeds: moving from Reval to Lübeck took between 4 weeks and, in winter, 4 months.
In 1241, Lübeck, which had access to the Baltic and North seas' fishing grounds, formed an alliance—a precursor to the league—with the trade city of Hamburg, which controlled access to the salt-trade routes from Lüneburg. These cities gained control over most of the salt-fish trade, especially the Scania Market; Cologne joined them in the Diet of 1260. The towns raised their armies, with each guild required to provide levies when needed. The Hanseatic cities aided one another, and commercial ships often served to carry soldiers and their arms. The network of alliances grew to include a flexible roster of 70 to 170 cities.
In the west, cities of the Rhineland such as Cologne enjoyed trading privileges in Flanders and England. In 1266, King Henry III of England granted the Lübeck and Hamburg Hansa a charter for operations in England, initially causing competition with the Westphalians. But the Cologne Hansa and the Wendish Hansa joined in 1282 to form the Hanseatic colony in London, although they didn't completely merge until the 15th century. Novgorod was blockaded in 1268 and 1277/1278. Nonetheless, Westphalian traders continued to dominate trade in London and also Ipswich and Colchester, while Baltic and Wendish traders concentrated between King's Lynn and Newcastle upon Tyne. Much of the drive for cooperation came from the fragmented nature of existing territorial governments, which did not provide security for trade. Over the next 50 years, the merchant Hansa solidified with formal agreements for co-operation covering the west and east trade routes. Cities from the east modern-day Low Countries, but also Utrecht, Holland, Zealand, Brabant, Namur, and modern Limburg joined in participation over the thirteenth century. This network of Hanseatic trading guilds became called the Kaufmannshanse in historiography.
The league succeeded in establishing additional Kontors in Bruges (Flanders), Bryggen in Bergen (Norway), and London (England) beside the Peterhof in Novgorod. These trading posts were institutionalised by the first half of the 14th century (for Bergen and Bruges) and, except for the Kontor of Bruges, became significant enclaves. The London Kontor, the Steelyard, stood west of London Bridge near Upper Thames Street, on the site later occupied by Cannon Street station. It grew into a walled community with its warehouses, weigh house, church, offices, and homes.
In addition to the major Kontors, individual ports with Hanseatic trading outposts or factories had a representative merchant and warehouse. Often they were not permanently manned. In Scania, Denmark, around 30 Hanseatic seasonal factories produced salted herring, these were called vitten and were granted legal autonomy to the extent that Burkhardt argues that they resembled a fifth kontor and would be seen as such if not for their early decline. In England, factories in Boston (the outpost was also called Stalhof), Bristol, Bishop's Lynn (later King's Lynn, which featured the sole remaining Hanseatic warehouse in England), Hull, Ipswich, Newcastle upon Tyne, Norwich, Scarborough, Yarmouth (now Great Yarmouth), and York, many of which were important for the Baltic trade and became centers of the textile industry in the late 14th century. Hansards and textile manufacturers coordinated to make fabrics meet local demand and fashion in the traders' hometowns. Outposts in Lisbon, Bordeaux, Bourgneuf, La Rochelle and Nantes offered the cheaper Bay salt. Ships that plied this trade sailed in the salt fleet. Trading posts operated in Flanders, Denmark-Norway, the Baltic interior, Upper Germany, Iceland, and Venice.
Hanseatic trade was not exclusively maritime, or even over water. Most Hanseatic towns did not have immediate access to the sea and many were linked to partners by river trade or even land trade. These formed an integrated network, while many smaller Hanseatic towns had their main trading activity in subregional trade. Internal Hanseatic trade was the Hanse's quantitatively largest and most important business. Trade over rivers and land was not tied to specific Hanseatic privileges, but seaports such as Bremen, Hamburg and Riga dominated trade on their rivers. This was not possible for the Rhine where trade retained an open character. Digging canals for trade was uncommon, although the Stecknitz Canal was built between Lübeck and Lauenburg from 1391 to 1398.
Starting with trade in coarse woolen fabrics, the Hanseatic League increased both commerce and industry in northern Germany. As trade increased, finer woolen and linen fabrics, and even silks, were manufactured in northern Germany. The same refinement of products out of the cottage industry occurred in other fields, e.g. etching, wood carving, armor production, engraving of metals, and wood-turning.
The league primarily traded beeswax, furs, timber, resin (or tar), flax, honey, wheat, and rye from the east to Flanders and England with cloth, in particular broadcloth, (and, increasingly, manufactured goods) going in the other direction. Metal ore (principally copper and iron) and herring came south from Sweden, while the Carpathians were another important source of copper and iron, often sold in Thorn. Lubeck had a vital role in the salt trade; salt was acquired in Lüneburg or shipped from France and Portugal and sold on Central European markets, taken to Scania to salt herring, or exported to Russia. Stockfish was traded from Bergen in exchange for grain; Hanseatic grain inflows allowed more permanent settlements further north in Norway. The league also traded beer, with beer from Hanseatic towns the most valued, and Wendish cities like Lübeck, Hamburg, Wismar, and Rostock developed export breweries for hopped beer.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Hanseatic League”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.