INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL ll! TOBT OF COMMERCE. 







estates goldsmiths and silversmiths, leather-worker*, turner*, 

 esjrriago-l.uililiTH, cutler*, Hoap-l..il.-r-. liukcrn, uml brewer*, and 

 established Reboots of weaving and dyeing. The natnru f tlio 



:nony may 1 i from its googi - 



i. It muct bo ovorlan r traffic, ana alo inter- 



! MI) urtiolos of trade muat be thono of foreign 

 countries. Tin- native products were little more than coarse 

 .in-ii, boor, and Rhenish wine*. Of coast-lino the country 

 h:i-l luit Hiiiull Ntrips on the Baltic and North Seat*. - 



ro, was the gate through which Smithcm and Oriental com- 

 moilitioa reached Qermany, and the cities of the Low CountriitM 

 became the entrepots of Northern produce. Eventually, however, 

 i commerce was considerably extended. The importance 

 ea-coast to a trading country in to bo seen in the fact 

 that one of the oldest trading stations of Qermany won that of 

 Veneta, in the estuary of the river Oder, to which allusion has 

 ulo. Its harbour would hold 300 ships. Veneta traded 

 vnii Si-aniliiKiviu, Russia, and Poland, on the one hand, and on 

 the other with Greece, the Levant, Independent Tartary, India, 

 un<l < liina. The town was cosmopolitan in law as well as trade, 

 and every one visiting it was free to worship according to his 

 Voneta was pillaged by the Swedes and Danes, in 811 

 .and in 830. Attracted by its wealth, Magnus, king of Denmark, 

 pillaged it and razed it to the ground in 1043. Its ruins now 

 xjover miles of ground in Usodom. Dragovit, in Holstein, and 

 Old Lubeck are both mentioned in the eighth century as commer- 

 cial towns. Bardewick, near Lunoburg, was favoured by Charle- 

 magne, who mode a road through Thuringia and Franconia to 

 Bavaria, thus connecting this town with Cello and Magdeburg, 

 ilitating the transport of goods between North and South 

 Germany. This able ruler likewise planned a canal to unite the 

 Rhino and the Danube. 



Henry the Fowler (918 936) turning his attention to the 

 mineral resources of Germany, promoted mining to such pur- 

 pose that after the year 987 gold to the value of 10,000 marks 

 was obtained annually from tho gold diggings on the Eule. 

 Most of tho early trade was conducted by the Jews, who, every- 

 where oppressed, could only accumulate portable wealth, espe- 

 cially in the form of money. The monks also, enriched as they 

 were with the gifts of tho devout, and bound to industry by their 

 TOWS, undertook some part of the German trade. The profits 

 thus made were not unfrequently confiscated wholly or in part 

 by warlike rulers, for the support of their soldiers. A cause of 

 disturbance peculiar to Germany prevailed in this inland trade. 

 Tho roads wero beset with freebooting knights, who exacted 

 arbitrary tolls, and otherwise plundered the merchants. These 

 knights were nobles, who, through profuse living, were unable to 

 support themselves on their regular revenues, and who there- 

 fore became little better than highway robbers. They built 

 strong castles out of a common fund, shared the proceeds of their 

 plunder, and were in continual conflict with tho trading towns. 

 During tho crusades and afterwards, their prodigality and rapa- 

 city were boundless, and the Emperor's mandates were openly 

 disregarded. Occasionally they resorted to piracies at sea. To 

 suppress this lawless state of things, tho emperors assumed 

 the protection of tho market towns, appointing a governor, 

 And raising a glove on the market-cross of each place as a 

 token that hostilities wero forbidden. Traders travelled in 

 company, with swords hung from their saddle-bows. Rich and 

 powerful cities, such as Vienna, Ratisbon, Ulm, Augsburg, and 

 Nuremberg, maintained bodies of soldiers, who formed an inte- 

 gral portion of the imperial army, and who gained expcrtness in 

 the nse of arms by defending themselves on commercial journeys 

 between their own flourishing towns and Constantinople or 

 Italy. Besides such imperial measures, tho towns formed 

 leagues amongst themselves for mutual protection. Three such 

 unions are of historic note tho Rhine, tho Swabian, and tho 

 Hanse Leagues and must have special mention. 



Tho Rhine League, as its name implies, comprised tho trading 

 towns in tho south-west of Germany and the lower Rhino pro- 

 vinces. Among these towns wo may enumerate Cologne, Weasel, 

 and Munster, of which Cologne was at tho head. Cologne was 

 powerful and wealthy, and of ancient foundation, with flourishing 

 manufactures and commerce, a population of 150,000, and an 

 armed force of 30,000 men. It was tho meeting-place or market 

 for tho trado flowing through the whole of tho Rhino lands. 



The Swabian League, of greater extent, included at first tho 

 trading towns of tho Danubian states, as well as tho whole circle 



of Swabia, now divided into Uarwi*, Waiteaburg, sad Bade*. 

 Thin circle was enriched by the river traffic, MM! Uw town, of 

 Augaburg, Batisbon, ' ' ' rn Knntmhttrr. ftmH9t, PelingOT, Koot- 

 lingen, ami Kempten grew prosperou* thereby. KabasqneaUy 

 >'lo trade was pursued with the republics of 

 Italy, and tho Swabiun League even extended it* rimifiMtitMM 

 to the south of ltusaia. The towua of UM league were industrial 

 M well an commercial, and retained for their own use many el 

 the manufiu .rtion* of North Germany, ae well ae the 



Oriental commodities which paeeed through Italy, in 

 for textile fabrics and metal-work. The burgher* i 

 wealthy that they were able to entertain kings. Augibnrg 

 the home of merchant princes, who on more than one ooeai 

 maintained an army, or made an equivalent contribution, for 

 the service of their sovereign. 



Tho JIanteatic League derives its name from " Hansa " or 

 " Hanse," a term applied in Germany to a guild or confederation. 

 " Hanse " ia posaibly connected with the word " hand," in which 

 tho union of the fingers forms a single member. In magnitude, the 

 union of tho Hanao Towna exceeded all the other leagues of the 

 Middle Ages, but its origin cannot now be traced. Its earliest 

 magazines wero only on tho Baltic, but the reputation of the 

 security and welcome offered to its members spreading amongst 

 merchants who had heretofore been obliged to conduct in penoo 

 every costly venture, the Hanse rapidly increased. The original 

 members of tho league did not exceed a dozen towns, of which 

 Lubeck stood at tho head, while Bremen and Hamburg ranked 

 next in importance. An astonishing success marked it* history 

 during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Wherever it* 

 factories appeared commerce throve. Ita care for the safety of 

 trade extended to both land and sea traffic, and agencies were 

 appointed in the Hanso Towna with the special view of deve- 

 loping foreign trade. In 1267 a settlement was established in 

 London, by permission of Henry III. In 1418 the French cities 

 of Rouen, Bordeaux, and St. Malo were enrolled as confederate 

 cities ; Barcelona and Cadiz, Leghorn and Messina, also entered 

 into like alliances for reciprocal privileges. The league was 

 governed by a Diet, meeting every three years in Lubeck, the 

 time of meeting being known as the Hanse Days. Lubeck. 

 Dantzic, Riga, Cologne, Munster, Deventer, Magdeburg, Bruns- 

 wick, and Hildosheim were the centres or capitals of Hanse pro- 

 vinces during the time of its greatest authority, and these citiea 

 alone possessed the right of signing privileges of membership in 

 the league, which they did on stated quarterly days. 

 town was called upon for its quota of men and money, to resist 

 aggression and to punish offending nations. The average 

 annual contribution amounted to 2,069 thalera. Among the Hanao 

 factories (afterwards permanent settlements) in foreign parts, 

 those of London, Bergen, Bruges, and Novgorod were the uoat 

 important. They wero governed by laws as stringent as thoso 

 which ruled monastic life ; marriage waa forbidden to the offi- 

 cials, that their minds might not bo diverted from their duty to 

 their employers. Tho influence of tho agents and their servants 

 was so great as sometimes to override tho local laws. In tho 

 period of ho power and prosperity cf tho league, the towns 

 enrolled in it wero classified in accordance with their nationality 

 and geographical position into four districts, forming a northern, 

 a southern, a western, and an eastern group, known respectively 

 as tho Wendish, Saxon, Westpholion, and Prussian Quarters. 



The Wendish Quarter. Mecklenburg and Pomerania, the ori- 

 ginal nucleus of the entire Hanso, embraced the towns of the lower 

 Elbe and Kolstein, a territory which, though now German in 

 language, was then Wondish or Slavonic. It contained Lnbock, 

 " the queen and princess of tho league," the seat of the centrcl 

 government, and depository of tho public archivea and treasury ; 

 also Anklans, Hamburg, Grk-Nwald (the capital of the Upper 

 Wendish sub-division), and the towns of Kolberg, Luneberjr. 

 Stettin, Bremen, Stroalsund, Rostock, Rngonvolde, Stado, Stse- 

 gard, Stettin, Stolpo, Wisby, Kiel, Weasel, and Wiamar. 



The Saxon Quarter included tho towns lying south of the 

 Wondiah division, or Saxony in ita ancient wide sense, from tho 

 .-> the Oder. Its capital was Brunswick, and among ita 

 other towns wore Magdeburg, Berlin, Frankfort-on-Oder, Ascher- 

 Icben; Breslau, Einbeck, Gottingen, Goslor, Halbcrstadt, Halle. 

 Hnmela, Hanover, Helmstadt. Hildeaheim, Lemgo, Magdeburg, 

 Nordheim, Quecllinburg, Salievodel, and Stendal. 



The Westphalia* Quarter embraced the towns of the Rhine. 

 land especially, together with Westphalia and the Netherlands 



