The Hanseatic League 305 



Later ou, when we were picturing to ourselves the 

 domestic life of the Norsemen in the heroic age, we saw 

 how every landowner of any consideration, if his estate 

 lay near the coast, was sure to possess one or more 

 vessels built and armed by himself and manned by his 

 house-carls, which might be used as occasion required 

 either as merchant vessels or as ships of war. They 

 were used as both. Lon" after the true Vikin" acje w^as 

 over the custom obtained in families of the higher class 

 of sending the young son or sons of the house upon 

 expeditions half of warlike adventure and half of trade. 

 As our young gentry used a century ago to signalise 

 their entry into manhood by making the grand tour, so 

 used these young sprigs of Norse nobility to set out 

 upon their voyage of trade or war. 



In this wise the Norwegians very early began to reap 

 some of the benefits of commerce. But it was likewise 

 this early proclivity towards trade which arrested the 

 development of Norway as a commercial nation. For 

 it prevented the growth of a distinct trading class, such 

 as had ere now developed in Europe proper, especially 

 in Northern Germany ; a class which from generation 

 to generation had increased its power in the teeth of 

 feudalism, which through initial weakness had learnt 

 the need of union, until now through that union it had 

 grown so strong that it could set the kinghood and the 

 chivalry of many nations at defiance. 



It so happens that the time when the great Viking 

 expeditions came to an end, and were succeeded by a 

 series of petty raids directed by one of the northern nations 

 against another, or between rival parties in the same 

 state, was precisely the time when Norway might have 



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