508 The Hanse Towns. [MAY, 



most honourable testimonies to the spirit of commerce was, that it had 

 made officers and councillors, who without the usual training of camps 

 and cabinets, were found capable of conducting the greatest transactions 

 of public life. The fleets of Lubeck were commanded by two senators, 

 Attendant! and More. Their general was Warendorf, the son of a burgo- 

 master. He fell gloriously in the moment of victory, and his country- 

 men raised a monument to him in one of their principal churches, where 

 lie stood for many an age in a Roman helmet and cuirass, and with a 

 fame not unworthy of the distinction. 



Nations are sometimes driven by necessity to the discovery of prin- 

 ciples which long elude philosophy. One of the latest doctrines of poli- 

 tical ceconomy is, that the most profitable traffic is the one nearest home. 

 The first efforts of the Hanseatics had been to share the splendid profits 

 of Venice and Genoa in the Mediterranean trade. They soon succeeded 

 in obtaining a share. But it was found that the length and hazards of 

 the voyage were more than equivalent to its advantages. The vessel, 

 sailing from the Baltic or the Elbe, did not return for a year. It thus 

 became necessary to find a nearer port. The Low Countries, in their 

 liberty, industry, and commercial habits, offered the true site for this 

 central establishment, and Bruges was fixed on for the grand depot of 

 the Baltic and the Mediterranean. 



But the history of commerce is a detail of all the improvements that 

 have shaped the modern mind of Europe. Perhaps two of the finest expe- 

 dients of civilization are Insurance and Bills of Exchange. Yet the former 

 of those was in activity in Bruges even in the beginning of the 14th cen- 

 tury; and the system of bills of exchange, a simple yet admirable effort 

 of human ingenuity, from which the principal liberties of Europe arose, 

 and which, beyond all other human inventions, gave the invaluable 

 power of escaping from the hands of a tyrant, was brought almost to its 

 perfection within the walls of this Flemish town. 



Before the middle of the fourteenth century the League had risen to 

 the highest pitch of prosperity. It was destined to feel the symptoms 

 of decline long before its close. On the death of Valdemar, his daughter 

 Margaret placed her son Olaus on the thrones of Denmark and Norway. 

 An insurrection against Albert, the unpopular king of Sweden, drove 

 him from his throne, which the nation offered to Margaret. The League, 

 dreading this new accumulation of power in one line, immediately armed; 

 and, in their rage, singularly forgetting the first principles of the com- 

 mercial state, let loose a whole swarm of pirates upon the dominions of 

 Margaret. But those robbers, who were named Vitalians, or the Vic- 

 tuallers, from their having been originally employed in provisioning the 

 besieged towns, soon turned upon their masters. The Hanseatic ships 

 offered a spoil which was not to be looked for among the meagre cargoes 

 of the impoverished ports of Sweden ; every day brought accounts of 

 some new excesses, and the League was finally forced to a compromise 

 with Margaret, in order to stop a war which was destroying themselves. 

 Albert, deserted by his last support, was now forced to abdicate, and by 

 the memorable " Union of Calmar"* the three crowns were supposed to 

 be laid on one brow for ever ! 



The brevity of those " eternal" arrangements in politics is prover- 

 bial ; and the death of this great princess threatened her System with 



* 1397. 



