HANSEATIC LEAGUE 



549 



code of laws ami customs, different from those of 

 tho country in wliirh they were established. In 

 fact eiu-h 1. 1" tin-in W.-LS to nil intents and purposes 

 ;m independent state within a state. As a general 

 nili- the members of the colony were not allowed to 

 many, wen- put through rough and trying initia- 

 timi ''('Minnie-', had to work their way up through 

 tin' vitrious grades of the guild, and after serving a 

 certain number of years had to give place to new 

 cuiip'i- I'rom tin- mother-cities at home; whilst the 

 regulations governing their domestic life, their 

 of housing, eating and drinking, and amus- 

 ing themselves, were very similar to those which 

 prevailed in the monasteries of the time. 



Hut there was another and more important phase 

 of the movement viz. that which developed itself 

 at home. At first the individual cities seem to 

 have acted almost independently of each other in 

 founding trading-colonies abroad ; at all events the 

 influence of Cologne was for some time supreme 

 in London, and that of Liil>eck supreme in Wisby. 

 But gradually merchants from other commercial 

 towns of Germany were admitted to share the pre- 

 rogatives of the guild and colony. This spirit of 

 association reacted in turn upon the mother-cities, 

 and about the middle of the 13th century, under 

 the cementing force of a close community of 

 interests, the large trading-cities of north Germany 

 began to co-operate together in leagues, more or 

 less officially constituted. Amongst the earliest of 

 supreme moment was that formed, at the period 

 indicated, between Hamburg and Liibeck (1241) 

 for the protection of the highways connecting the 

 two cities. When, however, Liibeck, which had 

 rapidly acquired a leading position among the 

 commercial towns of north Germany, desired to 

 enter the league of towns which had allied them- 

 selves with Cologne, the latter city strove hard to 

 exclude her, but in vain. From this time dates 

 the introduction of a political element into the 

 league. Liil>eck soon formed alliances with the 

 \\ radish towns on the Baltic, lying to the east 

 viz. Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, and Greifswald. 

 The Saxon and Westphalian towns, which had 

 ;il ready banded themselves together in separate 

 and independent confederations, joined the princi- 

 pal league, at the head of which Liibeck soon 

 placed herself by common consent of the rest ; and 

 the Prussian towns associated themselves about 

 1340 with those of Westphalia. The cities of the 

 principal league did not, however, form a demo- 

 cratic confederation of municipal states with a 

 regular, well-conceived constitution, such as we 

 tun I in confederated states at the present day. The 

 first and principal object of the association was to 

 maintain a monopoly of trade, by jealously exclud- 

 ing all rivals, in such countries as Russia, Norway, 

 and the south of Sweden, as well as to preserve in 

 their own hands the special commercial preroga- 

 tives which they had managed to acquire in coun- 

 tries like England and Flanders. Thus, in the 

 beginning their interests were mainly concentrated 

 upon their colonies and trading-dep6ts, and what- 

 ever foreign policy they may have had was shaped 

 by the necessities of protecting or furthenng 

 those interests, which were of course of a purely 

 commercial character. Yet, as their wealth in- 

 creased, and therewith their political influence, 

 these Phoenicians of the north began to pursue 

 other than mere ordinary mercantile aims. In 

 Norway, for instance, they insisted that the entire 

 trade of the country, at least of the northern and 

 western portions, should pass through their dep6t 

 at Bergen, where they ousted the native Nor- 

 wegians from their own wharves and warehouses, 

 seized upon their trade, and refused all obedience 

 to the civic authorities of the town. And in 

 Russia their behaviour was not a whit less arbi- 



trary and high-handed. But the first awakening 

 of UM league to tin- coiiHciouHnesM that it wan the 

 possessor of real political power came in 1370, when 

 it brought King ualdemar of Denmark, tin? mo*t 

 powerful and energetic sovereign on the Baltic 

 shores, to his knees, and imposed upon him a 

 humiliating peace. For many, many years rela- 

 tions between the Hariseatic merchants and the 

 Danes had been, and continued to be, those of 

 latent or open hostility, for the Danes were the 

 only serious rivals the Hansa had to encounter, 

 and Denmark had, as now, control of the Sound 

 and the Belts, besides holding possession of the 

 south of Sweden, off whose coasts the great herring 

 fisheries, one of the principal sources of wealth to 

 the Hanse merchants, were in those ages carried 

 on. 



From the peace of Stralsund ( 1370) the Hanseatic 

 League claimed the right of controlling the election 

 of each successive sovereign who was crowned king 

 of Denmark. And by the 16th century its officers 

 had advanced so far in statecraft, anu the league 

 itself had acquired so much political influence, 

 that it was aide to depose the king of Denmark 

 (Christian II.), and bestow, not only his crown, 

 but also that of Sweden, upon candidates of its own 

 nomination. Yet its power was then already a cen- 

 tury on the wane. This result was brought about 

 by the co-operation of a variety of causes, chief 

 amongst which were the following. The discovery 

 of America and of the sea-route to India struck 

 the severest blow at the Hansa by diverting the 

 stream of commerce from the Baltic to the Atlantic 

 shores of Europe. Amongst other changes, it 

 caused a falling-off in the demand for furs, a 

 staple commodity of Novgorod ; while towards the 

 middle of the 15th century the herrings ceased 

 to enter the Baltic in such large quantities, but 

 began to direct their course instead to the coasts 

 of Holland. The Dutch members of the league 

 broke away from it early in the 15th century, 

 and by adapting themselves to the altered con- 

 ditions of the age, soon rose to be formidable 

 rivals of their former associates. The English too 

 were laying the foundations of their subsequent 

 commercial supremacy, and in 1598 Elizabeth, de- 



E rived the Steelyard merchants of all their privi- 

 jges, and banished them from the country. The 

 discovery by Sir Richard Chancellor of the sea- 

 route to the White Sea struck a fatal blow at the 

 monopoly hitherto enjoyed by the Hanse merchants 

 in the trade with Russia. The conversion of so 

 many European nations to Protestantism greatly 

 lessened the demand for dried and salted herrings 

 in Lent, as well as for wax for candles, which the 

 Hanse merchants imported in large quantities from 

 Novgorod. In the middle of the 16th century the 

 ' con tor ' or depdt of Bruges was removed to Ant- 

 werp, where, however, the old-fashioned methods 

 of doing business still practised by the Hanse 

 merchants were unable to compete successfully 

 against the more modern and enterprising methods 

 of the Dutch and the Flemings. And unity no 

 longer prevailed within the league itself, for, whilst 

 Liibeck clung with jealous tenacity to the anti- 

 quated conservative policy of the past, Hamburg 

 insisted upon conforming itself to the newer con- 

 ditions of the age ; and several of the other towns, 

 finding that the advantages which had formerly 

 accrued to them from their participation in the 

 league were no longer reaped by them, fell off from 

 it one after the otner. But the decay must also 

 be attributed in large measure to the advances 

 made by the states of Europe in the knowledge 

 and application of the principles of government; 

 whilst the more perfect preservation of public order, 

 and the removal of many of the vexatious impedi- 

 nient - to the free circulation of commerce, deprived 



