528 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



822. Scattered pieces of information indicate various 

 dates and places at which these trading combinations first 

 appeared; and indicate also their actions. Italy, which in 

 industry as in art was in advance of the other European 

 nations, had something like a bank in the 12th century: 

 probably of the kind described in the chapter on Auxiliary 

 Exchange, implying an association of traders. 



More important and conspicuous, however, were the com 

 panies formed for carrying on foreign commerce. Early 

 examples existed in Genoa and Pisa. There the mercantile 

 leagues acquired a political character as a result of their 

 frequent militant operations. So was it afterwards with the 

 Hanseatic League an association of merchants inhabiting 

 the Hanse towns, who, originally uniting for mutual de 

 fence, developed armed fleets with which they carried on 

 successful wars against kings, and which enabled them to 

 put down the hordes of pirates infesting the Northern seas. 



The militant character of these bodies was at this stage 

 their predominant character, considered as combinations; 

 since their members were usually not partners in trading 

 transactions, but separately traded under the protection of 

 the aggregate they formed. We read that in England 

 &quot; from very early times, several owners might combine to 

 fit out a ship and buy a cargo, when none of them was able, 

 separately, to risk a very large sum in ventures by sea.&quot; 

 Existing under variously modified names in the 13th centu 

 ry, the first of these, generally called the Hamburg Com 

 pany, but in Queen Elizabeth s reign re-chartered as tho 

 Company of Merchant Adventurers, had this character in 

 common with other companies of Merchant Adventurers at 

 Exeter and Hull. The title &quot; Merchant Adventurers &quot; in 

 some sort implied that they ran risks in the pursuit of com 

 merce, risks which, when pirates were prevalent, were 

 often fighting risks. This trait was in a still greater degree 

 possessed by the Russia Company, finally established in 

 1556, which, having under its charter a political organiza- 



