The word Hansa (= group of merchants)
was written down officially for the first time
in an English royal document dated 1267. the beginning there was simply an
association of merchants plus an association of ships, from the Zuyder Zee to
Finland, and from Sweden to Norway. The central axis of their trade ran from
London and Bruges to Riga and Reval, which were the gateways to either
Novgorod or to Vitebsk and Smolensk.
Exchange took place between the still
underdeveloped Baltic countries, which
produced raw materials and foodstuffs, and the North Sea, where the West had
already established its networks and laid down its rules. In the port of Bruges, the
world-economy centred on Europe and the Mediterranean welcomed the great
boats of the Hansa, the solid clinker-built Kogge which first appeared at the end of
the thirteenth century (and were to serve as models for the roundships of the
Mediterranean)." Later came the hooker,'" another type of flat-bottomed merchant
vessel capable of carrying heavy cargoes of salt, bulky casks of wine, wood and
other forest products, or grain loaded directly into the hold. The control of the seas
by the Hanseatic League was evident if far from complete: until about 1280, their
ships avoided crossing the dangerous Sound, and even when the Umlandfahrt" (the
circumnavigation which did use the strait) became normal practice, the isthmus
route between Lubeck and Hamburg (along several stretches of river and one
canal) although time-consuming, was still being used.
The products of the North and East - wood,
wax, fur, rye and wheat - were only of
value however when re- exported to the West. And in the other direction came the
inevitable counterpart - salt, cloth and wine. The system was a simple and well-
founded one, but it had its problems. And it was the overcoming of such problems
which welded together the urban league of the Hansa into a unit at once fragile and
solid. Its fragility resulted from the instability of a group composed of so many towns
- between 70 and 170 - all at some distance from each other, and whose delegates
were never all united in a single general assembly. Behind the Hansa there was no
state, not even a firmly- constituted organization. It consisted simply of many towns,
proud and jealous of their prerogatives, sometimes competing with each other from
the protection of their stout walls, each with its merchants, its patricians, its guilds,
fleet, warehouses and accumulated wealth. The solidity of the Hansa came from the
community of interests it stood for, from the need to play the same economic game,
from the common civilization created by trading in one of the most frequented
maritime areas of Europe, between the Baltic and Lisbon, and lastly from a
common language which made no small contribution to the unity of the Hansa. This
language 'had as its substratum Low German (differing from the German spoken in
the South) enriched according to need by borrowings from Latin, from Estonian (in
Reval), Polish (in Lublin), from Italian, Czech, Ukrainian and possibly Lithuanian'.54
It was the language of 'a power elite and a wealth elite, implying membership of a
defined social and professional group'.55 And since these patrician merchants
were remarkable for their mobility, the same families - the Angermiindes,
Veckinghusens, Von Soests, Gieses and Von Suchtens - might be found anywhere
between Reval, Gdansk, Lubeck and Bruges."
All these links made for coherence, solidarity,
habits in common and a shared
pride. Force of circumstance did the rest. In the Mediterranean, with its
comparative abundance of wealth, the different cities could all operate
independently and compete with each other in fierce rivalry. In the Baltic and North
Sea, such behaviour would have been difficult. The profits to be made from bulky
goods, large in volume but low in price, were not great, and the risks and expenses
were considerable. The profit rate was 5% at best!' Here more than elsewhere the
merchant had to calculate, save and look ahead. One of the rules of success was to
control both supply and demand - whether for exports to the West or redistribution
of imports within the East. The Kontors (trading-posts or agencies abroad)
established by the Hansa were strongholds shared by all the Hanseatic merchants,
protected by privilege and defended to the utmost, whether the Sankt Peterhofin
Novgorod, the Deutsche Briicke in Bergen, or the Stahlhofin London. As visitors to
the trading-post for a season, the Germans were subject to strict discipline. In
Bergen, young men 'serving an apprenticeship' might stay for ten years, learning
the local languages and trading practices, and were obliged to remain single. In this
branch of the Hansa, the rules were all laid down by the Council of Elders and two
aldermen. Except in Bruges, where it was not materially possible, the merchant had
to lodge in the Kontor.
The whole of the North eventually found
itself trapped by a chain of supervision and
dependence. In Bergen, Norwegian interests proper were continually trampled
underfoot. With their insufficient agricultural production, the Norwegians" depended
on the grain which the Liibeckers brought in from Pomerania and Brandenburg.
When Norway tried to reduce the privileges of the Hansa, a grain blockade (as in
1284-5) soon brought her to heel. And inasmuch as competition from imported
grain blocked the development of self-sufficiency in agriculture, the foreign
merchants were able to obtain whatever they wanted from the Norwegians: salt
meat, salt or dried cod from the Lofoten Islands, wood, grease, tar, furs.
In the West, where the competition was
rather stiffer, the Hansa was nevertheless
able to obtain privileges, in London more easily than in Bruges. In the English
capital, the Stahlhof near London Bridge was another Fondaco dei Tedeschi, with
its wharves and warehouses; the Hanseatic merchants were exempted from most
taxes; they had their own judges and were even granted the signal honour of
guarding one of the city gates.
