THE HANSARDS 69 



" How could the Dutch but be converted, when 

 The Apostles were so many fishermen ? " 



The Hansa League had long been a power in 

 London, the corporation having ceded to the 

 Hansards the defence of Bishopsgate. And all 

 this wealth and importance were based upon 

 the herring, two barrels of which, or a cask of 

 the finest sturgeon, or one hundredweight of 

 Polish wax, were presented by the Hansards 

 annually to the Lord Mayor of London, while 

 fifteen gold nobles, wrapped in a pair of 

 gloves, were given to the alderman who was 

 chosen to judge their disputes within the city 

 boundaries. The League indeed had the power 

 of the purse, and the art of " peaceful pene- 

 tration " was not discovered by the nineteenth 

 century German. 



The best money in the Middle Ages was that 

 of Liibeck, and English traders stipulated that 

 they should be paid in pounds of the Easter- 

 lings, the pound being a Flemish reckoning 

 containing twenty shillings, and each shilling 

 twelve groats. The pound was an actual 

 pound weight of silver, although in the four- 

 teenth century Liibeck was permitted to coin 

 gold pieces called guilders, resembling the 

 Florentine ducat (" florin ") the gold being 

 bought by the Easterlings at Bruges. The 

 *' pound sterling " of to-day is therefore by 

 origin the Flemish pound of silver of the 

 fineness and quality used by the Easterlings 

 of Liibeck, the most powerful city of the 



