Author in Hamburg. Rathous in background
 Hanseatic League Dominance in Northern Germany

Trade Monopolies and Merchant Associations in Early Modern Europe

© Michael Streich

 Mar 29, 2009

Early merchant associations, equated with the beginning of town life and European trade fairs, enabled powerful organizations like the Hanseatic League to dominate.

Centuries before Europe would merge itself into a powerful, continental force known as the European Union, merchant settlements and towns in the medieval and early modern periods were forming trade associations that worked to benefit from commercial monopolies, tax exemptions, and the granting of import and export privileges from kings and other feudal lords. Emerging out of these often competing associations, the Hanseatic League, controlling the lucrative markets along the Baltic and North Seas, would thrive well into the fifteenth century and dominate most of northern and middle European trade.

Rise of the Hansa

By the eleventh century, trade fairs enabled wealthy Europeans to purchase a variety of goods from distant lands unknown during the period between the fall of Rome and the beginnings of town living. Emerging early towns often owed their existence to these trade fairs as well as several centuries of developing trade routes, linked perhaps to the Viking raids of the eighth century and beyond. Vikings were known to raid and eventually trade as far south as Marseilles in southern France.

The growth of towns was accomplished by the ever increasing need for skilled craftsmen catering to growing populations. Innovations in agricultural production in the eleventh century also impacted population growth, leading to a plethora of twelfth century towns that weaned themselves of feudal control through town charters and bound burghers by a common law.

Fueled by this town expansion, European merchants began to form associations, one of the earliest being the Cologne Hansa. Special commercial privileges and trade monopolies made the Hansas attractive as other towns affiliated with Cologne. In northern Germany, cities like Lubeck – one of the first German ports on the Baltic, and Hamburg on the Elbe River began to compete with Cologne and other associations.

Rise and Dominance of the Hanseatic League

Cities of the German Hansa guarded their independence fiercely, resisting the frequent attempts by princes to incorporate them into ducal landholdings such as in the case of Schleswig and Saxony’s attempts to harness the wealth of Lubeck. The Lubeck city hall, still standing today, was considered one of the finest and demonstrated the city’s commercial might at its mercantile zenith. Along with Hamburg, Lubeck is still referred to Hansestadt.

The shrewd dominance of Hanseatic commercial power is best demonstrated by its dealings with Norway through the Hansa port, Bergen. All grain imported into Norway came aboard ships of the League. In return, Norway’s fish export was carried to other ports, such as London or Antwerp, by German ships. The monopoly made the Hansa wealthy. When Norway balked at perceived unfair trade practices in 1294, the League boycotted Bergen, forcing Norway to accede.

A boycott against Bruges, from which Flemish cloth entered northern Europe, was also successful and ended with even greater concessions made to the League. At the same time, however, the League promoted industries such as in Sweden where copper and iron production increased, in part due to innovations introduced by the League.

Decline of the Hanseatic League

By the mid to end of the fifteenth century, early modern nation states were forming and, embracing their own mercantilist policies favorable only to national economies, limited earlier trade monopolies and commercial privileges. The same can be said of the Baltic region where cities like Danzig, associated with Poland, were competing apart from the League.

Fernand Braudel, in his book on 15th-18th Century commerce, sites the economist Walter Eucken suggesting that one very basic reason the League “failed to become great in the sixteenth century” was due to its refusal to adopt the practice of double-bookkeeping. (573)

Although Hamburg would remain a free city with its own stock exchange – the oldest in Germany, dating to 1558, many Hanseatic cities lost their independence or free-city status as early modern nation states developed. The exclusive “trade stations,” such as Bryggen in Bergen, Norway, or the Hanseatic station in London, also lost their privileges in these years of change.

Sources:

Fernard Braudel, The Wheels of Commerce: Civilization & Capitalism 15th-18th Century Volume 2 (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1979).

Johannes Schildhauer, The Hansa: History and Culture (Leipzig: Druckerei Fortschritt Erfurt, 1985). [A professor of General History at Greifswald University in the mid 20th century, Schildhauer is considered an expert on the Hansa and on Baltic history]

The copyright of the article Hanseatic League Dominance in Northern Germany in Late Middle Ages is owned by Michael Streich. Permission to republish Hanseatic League Dominance in Northern Germany in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.