Trade is one of the oldest economic activities for which we have evidence. Over time, it has evolved along with people thanks to everything that comes with it, not just goods but also ideas and new technologies that could be transmitted during journeys.
The case of the Hanseatic League is no less significant as its influence extended beyond trade and economically linked businesses, becoming the economic engine of medieval Northern Europe. This commercial association, originally Germanic, gradually expanded to dominate the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. What these German merchants sought was support in economic interests and securing better protection for their interests and themselves. The term "Hanse" or "Hansa" is a word in Middle Low German that means guild in Castilian, which is nothing other than an association of traders or merchants, a type of association common during the Late Middle Ages or what would come to be known as: a merchant guild of the time.
The formation of the Hanseatic League was due to various factors. First and foremost is the progressive decline in power of the Germanic Empire until the 13th century. With this, cities gradually increased their freedom to act and achieve certain political and economic determinations. One city that stands out is Lübeck, founded in the year 1143 by Adolf II of Holstein, which became the capital of the Hanseatic League. In addition to the founding date of Lübeck, we must highlight the year 1256 when the first statutes of the Hansa were formalized at a kind of meeting of "sea cities" including: Lübeck, Hamburg, Lüneburg, Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund.
Over time and with the passage of time, around 70 cities joined, both port cities as well as those situated on navigable rivers and thus having access to the sea. These cities added to the number of other Hansa cities that over time and at their peak numbered about 200 cities across Northern Europe. It is worth noting that these cities did not always remain within the Hanseatic League throughout its entire existence, as they would enter or leave based on their interests.
The city that led and chaired the League most often was Lübeck, where more than a hundred Hansa meetings took place between 1356 and 1669. At these meetings or assemblies, representatives of the Hanse would decide on strategies to pursue in their various interests and promote them. The city of Lübeck achieved great prestige beyond the Hanseatic League, so much so that it was referred to as "The Queen of the Hansa." Many goods passed through its urban area since it was located at the center of a network extending across the sea to the north and inland to the south.
Since its founding, it gradually gained more power, eventually having something akin to a commercial monopoly in Northern Europe. It reached such an extent that it had representation houses in other European port cities, which were not limited solely to the representation house itself, known as Kontors, but also included their own neighborhoods in each city. They had significant commercial privileges and rights in cities such as London, Bruges, Bergen, and Novgorod. Although they achieved all this, they carried out actions like trade blockades.
These trade blockades were used to try to maintain their interests or achieve new strategies for commercial and expansionist goals. If such actions were taken and did not have the desired effects because a member city did not comply with them, that city could be expelled from the Hanseatic League, which could mean serious consequences for the city. One of these cases was in 1392 when the city of Cologne refused to adhere to the trade blockades established at the time regarding the Scandinavian kingdoms that had assumed Hanseatic supremacy.
Extent of the Hansa
To get an idea of how far its power and influence reached, we need to focus more on the cities of the Hanseatic League and their adjacent territories rather than their commercial activities. At its peak, there were many incorporations of various cities, reaching almost two hundred in total, with around 70 forming the core of the Hansa both strategically and statistically. If we look at a map representing the power of the Hanseatic League geographically today, we can see that it was present in sixteen countries including Belgium, England, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Russia, Sweden, Belarus, France, Iceland, England, and obviously Germany.
By analyzing the locations of these cities, it becomes clear that the territories where the Hanse had influence were mainly in Eastern Europe, northern Poland, southern Scandinavia, the Baltic countries, and the Nordic provinces of Germany. With the growing economic power of the Hanseatic League and its improved infrastructure, they came to control or indirectly control those territories without exercising lordly powers over them.
The core of the organization was always found in northern Germany, something worth noting, being represented almost exclusively by Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen. These three cities as the crown jewels of the Hanse, while other cities like London and Bruges where the Hanse had representation were points of contact with other European commercial groups during the Middle Ages because they were cities with a greater tradition in international trade.
Business
The Hanseatic League's trading routes did not share any port or central city where all activities and administrative centers of the Hansa could have been initiated and concluded. What can be detected are endpoints of the routes, that is, ports with a final function from which there was no further movement in the indicated direction. Examples of this type of Hanseatic city include Revel (now Tallinn) and Bergen, one of Norway's most important ports today. It must be remembered that during the centuries of maximum activity of the Hanseatic League, it is impossible to speak of nations neither in the territories highlighted nor in those lands on the periphery of the league. Undoubtedly, and not only because it was initiated there, the cities that were economically dedicated to Hanseatic business were located in lands that today belong to Germany. We can deduce directly from their current size how important these cities were back then.
Whether or not they had a center for their commercial activities, the Hansa's trading routes were connected with major European economic centers. In the next paragraph, one Hanseatic city will be described, but to maximize the representation of economic activity and ensure the intangibility of the Hanseatic whole, actions were taken collectively in the two most important cities regarding medieval international trade: London and Bruges. This is seen in the act of purchasing a well-located place for business both in London (the Stahlhof, translation: steel court, with no connection to steel) and in Bruges (the representative commercial office of the Hanseatic League, whose tower can still be seen incorporated into the town hall building). Both buildings were sold centuries after the flourishing period of the Hanseatic League, although it continued to exist (Dollinger, 1964).
The Hansa was first and foremost an organization dedicated to maritime trade, so cities located inland only partially participated in this type of commerce. The large number of Hanseatic cities in Westphalia is surprising but can be explained by their good location, as land routes from Northern Europe to Flanders and France necessarily crossed Westphalian lands, with places like Dortmund and Cologne marking points of international economic interest. Additionally, cities along the Rhine had a quick connection both to the Black Forest in the south, whose wood was sold to the Low Countries, and to Dutch trading cities. The toll for crossing the Rhine benefited the Archbishopric of Cologne for a long time. However, we see that even Westphalian cities without river trade were incorporated into the Hanseatic League, which can only be explained by the political advantages and participation in imperial power that membership entailed:
Let us deduce that most trade routes reached ports and only a smaller part was developed on land. The Hanseatic League obviously took advantage of its maritime monopolies as much as possible, and only for the better accessibility of certain terrestrial sites, it amplified its commercial activity towards the interior of Europe (Hammel-Kiesow, 2008).
Regarding economic matters of the Hanseatic League, it was the trade in various goods which we see were exchanged at central locations and major ports. These included raw materials from the north such as wood, wool, grain, wax or hides for manufactured products and even luxury items from the south including wine, spices, textiles, and jewelry.
As expected, the goods handled by cities integrated into the Hanse or Hanseatic were those we would call local since they came from the surrounding economy or nearby regions. There are cases like Nordic wood used for various activities including shipbuilding which came from countries such as Finland and Sweden as well as parts of Russia. In the case of grain, it was also brought from there along with products from the Baltic states, where domesticated animal skins, leather, and amber were prominent, especially the latter.
Up until now we have been discussing goods coming from the north but among manufactured goods in other areas are European wool, mostly produced in England and distributed almost entirely from there. England already enjoyed a great reputation for metal production at that time. Wool was distributed to various parts of Europe through several routes, but one route was the most frequented as it was the shortest, going from London where goods arrived from all over the country, with much crossing the English Channel to be received in cities like Bruges or Antwerp, from which they went to fairs that traded successfully with wool during the Middle Ages (Poeck, 2010).
To ensure its commercial routes and thus protect its various investments, the Hanseatic League promoted the construction of lighthouses and the training of maritime pilots. Among the things that benefited it was the ability to build ships; among the most prominent cities in this field were Lübeck and Danzig. In addition to the different goods they traded, the Hansa also sold its ships throughout Europe, reaching as far as the Mediterranean Sea and countries with access to it such as Italy.
When addressing the case of ships used in the Hanseatic League, we must consider the technologies used by Hanseatic merchants. It is important to note the materials available and the responses that shipyards could provide. Knowing that a large part of their commercial business was maritime and processed through the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the channel between Great Britain and the rest of Europe, it's also necessary to add trade with Russia, which couldn't be reached for parts of the year due to climatic conditions requiring high navigational knowledge. This required sturdy ship constructions.
For this, the so-called cog was used, an emblematic and very specific ship in maritime trade. This type of ship derived from a broad vessel with no special form that would allow it to be applicable to such maritime commerce. The cog had already been used before the 12th century in coastal waters where there was no danger from currents or strong winds. In the 12th and 13th centuries, it was the most commonly used ship of the Hanseatic League. These constructions had spacious cargo areas without compartments; in the middle was a central mast with a single sail, and there were attics both at the front and back. The maximum speed of a cog, whose length did not usually exceed twenty meters but could reach thirty, was six knots.
The great advantage of the cog was its great durability, low need for sailors, and above all relative to the last factor, its relatively large cargo capacity. During the most successful period of Hanseatic times, the combined carrying capacity of all cogs is estimated at several hundred tons. During wartime, especially river cogs were equipped with cannons and soldiers and thus converted into warships (Dollinger, 1964).
Conclusion
Throughout time, we observe that one of the things that greatly enriched Germany was the Hanseatic League. This enormous institution contributed to forming the basis for advancement in the northern parts of Europe. After the Hansa, we see that infrastructure as well as international cultural exchange were sponsored on an unprecedented scale. The League was one of the elements throughout history that allowed humans to develop socially and economically like never before, especially in this part of the world, along with the great legacy it left behind, which Germany received the largest share of at a cultural level, worthy of being protected and made known.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
De Rouchelle, Roux (1844). History of Hanseatic Cities, Imprenta del Imparcial.
Dollinger, Philippe (1964). The Hansa (XII – XVII) centuries, Aubier.
Ehlers, Joachim (1997). Heinrich der Löwe – European Principality in the High Middle Ages, Muster-Schmidt, Zürich.
Hammel-Kiesow, Rolf (2008). The Hanseatic League, Beck, München.
Lloyd, T.H. (1991). England and the German Hansa 1157-1611 – A study of their trade and commercial diplomacy, Cambridge University Press.
Poeck, Dietrich (2010). The Lords of the Hanseatic League – Delegates and Networks, Lang, Frankfurt am Main.
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