114. Development of commerce in South and North.—Medieval commerce reached its highest development on opposite sides of the continent of Europe, in the Levant trade of the South and in the trade carried on by the Hanseatic cities of the North. Commerce was, of course, not confined to these localities. We have seen already how German merchants and the Flanders galleys united the North and South of Europe; and every one of the present European countries took a greater or less share in the exchange of wares. We have already described, however, the general character of commerce in the medieval period, and must refer the reader to that description for some idea of the commerce of countries which are not treated in detail in this sketch.

115. Conditions and wares of the Baltic trade.—The wares of the northern trade present a contrast to those which furnished the material of eastern commerce. In the first place the countries of central Europe found in Scandinavia and the Northeast, which formed the trading ground, peoples who were their industrial inferiors; these peoples were glad to receive manufactures instead of supplying them. Secondly, the cost of carriage was much less in the North than in the South, not only because transportation was almost entirely by sea and over a shorter route, but also because the tolls on trade were much less than in the Asiatic countries. It was possible, therefore, to trade in bulky articles of comparatively small value.

The luxuries which formed so large a part of the eastern exports were scarcely represented in the northern trade. Amber can be put in this class, though the trade in it was of no great importance; this was a fossilized resin which was found on the coast of the Baltic, and which was used for ornaments. Wax was a far more considerable item of export, which may, perhaps, be regarded as a luxury, since it found its chief employment in the form of candles used in church services.

116. Exports from the Baltic, mainly raw materials.—Most of the exports from northeastern Europe were raw materials serving the simpler needs of man. Among the foodstuffs fish took the first place. Until the fifteenth century the herring, which does not now range outside the waters of the North Sea and the open ocean, came each year in late summer to the Swedish and German coasts of the Baltic; and the trade in dried and salted fish, especially herring, was one of the chief branches of northern commerce. The whole population of western Europe was at this time Roman Catholic, and the consumption of fish was of course stimulated by the rules of the church. Other foodstuffs exported were honey, butter, and salt meat.

The Northeast had no textiles to offer to the rest of Europe, but in its furs it had a substitute for them which was most highly prized. The furs included not only the finer varieties, the use of which was restricted to the upper classes, but also common grades that were desired as much for their warmth as for their appearance. Houses were so poorly heated that comfort was impossible without thick clothing. We can understand, therefore, the complaint of a German bishop who said that “we strive as hard to come into the possession of a marten skin as if it were everlasting salvation.”

Other raw materials exported were skins and tallow from animal industry, and forestry products which were destined to be the mainstay of the Baltic trade in later times, various forms of timber and the group of products known later as “naval stores,” including pitch, tar, and turpentine.

117. Exports from the West to the Baltic countries.—In return for its imports western Europe sent to Russia and Scandinavia its manufactures and the raw products which could not be obtained in the Northeast. The list includes wheat, wine, salt, and metals, and, among the manufactures, especially cloth and beer. The merchants of the West conducted the trade not only between their home districts and the less developed countries, but also between these countries; they carried herrings, for instance, from Scandinavia to Russia.

118. Contrast of the history of the commercial cities in Italy and in Germany.—The cities of Germany, which took advantage of the opportunities for trade in the North, were like those of Italy in their freedom from royal authority. There seems, therefore, a chance that they might fight among themselves for the trade, and that one of them might get a commanding position as did Venice in the South. No one of them, however, had the peculiar advantages of the geographical position and the freedom from attacks by land which Venice enjoyed. They were too evenly matched to settle quickly the question of supremacy, and they ran such dangers from the attacks of feudal lords that they could not afford to quarrel among themselves. Instead of competing they united, in the Hansa or Hanseatic League, which was the most remarkable commercial association of the medieval period.

119. Rise of the Hanseatic League.—The word “hanse” meant in early German a society, a band of men, and was applied to a number of commercial associations besides the particular league to which we apply it here. This league grew up gradually in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The merchants of various German cities found it necessary to unite for the protection of their interests abroad, and the beginnings of the association are found in the island of Gotland, in the Baltic and in the city of London, where Germans carried on a considerable trade. After a while the cities at home took up the association which their merchants had started in foreign countries, and in the fourteenth century a great league grew up, centering in the cities at the southwestern corner of the Baltic, of which Lübeck was the chief. Sailors were still afraid to navigate the waters around Denmark, because of the dangerous currents and shoals, so Baltic wares were carried across the isthmus, and cities like Lübeck grew great on this trade and on that which came down the Elbe valley.

120. Extent and organization of the League.—“When the ambassadors of the Hanseatic League in England in 1376 were asked for a list of the members who made up their vast association, they answered scornfully that surely even they themselves could not be supposed to remember the countless names of towns, big and little in all kingdoms, in whose name they spoke.” The league was in fact very extensive, for it included not only the chief German seaports, but also towns in the interior and some towns outside of Germany altogether. The number varied from time to time; in the period of greatest power it was nearly 100, stretching from Dinant in modern Belgium to Krakau and Reval in the East, and including towns as far inland as Göttingen in Germany. The towns never formed a very close union, but sent their representatives every year or so to a meeting-place where they could discuss matters of common interest, decide upon the policy to be followed, and raise what resources they could for carrying the policy through.

121. Control of the commerce of northern Europe by the League.—The aim in general was the protection of commerce from the attacks of pirates and feudal lords and the negotiation of commercial treaties which would extend the privileges of members and preserve their monopoly of trade. The League was so successful that it obtained in the closing centuries of the Middle Ages a predominance in the commerce of northern Europe comparable to that of the Dutch and of the English in later times. In the West it had to share its trade with other peoples. In this direction Bruges was the terminus of many of the voyages; at that port the Hanseatics met the Venetians, coming in the Flanders galleys, and secured also many wares from western Europe. This was by no means, however, the limit of their western voyages. They had an important trading station in England, with a great group of buildings, the “Steelyard” near London bridge, and invested their capital in English tin mines; one of their favorite voyages was to Bourgneuf, south of the Loire, on the western coast of France; and they sent their ships in some periods as far as Spain and Portugal.

The North and East of Europe were, however, the field of their greatest success. In Scandinavia (including Iceland) and Russia, they gained a complete monopoly of commerce; the peoples of those countries were so backward that they permitted the Germans to do the most important part of their trading for them, and the governments were weak and were easily forced to grant the privileges desired.

122. Methods of trading; factories.—The methods which the Hanseatics employed in their trade are worthy of special attention, because they were characteristic of the time, being very similar to those of the Venetians in the East, and because they have been employed under similar conditions in later periods. They established “factories” in the sense of trading posts (not manufactories), where most of the trade was carried on. A factory was, in the first place, a fortress where the merchants could be safe from attacks by the natives; at Novgorod, for instance, the group of buildings was enclosed and was carefully guarded by men and by great watch-dogs both day and night. The factory was, moreover, a place where the trade could be regulated, and where the merchants could be kept under supervision. To let a man trade as he pleased would have subjected not only himself but all his compatriots to danger, for the natives made little distinction between foreigners and would readily have punished one merchant for the fault of another. The factories were centers of social life, with their rough initiations and their games, and they were useful in training young men in commerce; but they were kept under such strict discipline and minute regulation that they seem like garrisons in the enemy’s country.

123. Flanders and Bruges.—Between the regions under the commercial control of the Hanseatics on one side and the Venetians on the other lay a sort of neutral zone where both parties met, centering in the region about modern Belgium. This district was favored not only by the junction in it of the northern and southern trade; it had other advantages of position in that it lay near the mouths of great rivers, the Scheldt, Meuse, and Rhine, and was also at the crossing of important land routes. It had enjoyed an early development of industry in its towns, and had been liberally treated by its feudal rulers.

At different periods the great commerce which flowed to and through this district chose different points for its concentration. In the fourteenth century the favored spot was Bruges (the Flemish word meaning bridges), the greatest market in northern Europe, vying even with Venice. Here could be found Scandinavians, Germans, English, French, Portuguese, Spaniards, and Italians, exchanging the wares from different sources; a contemporary writer names 30 different countries, both Christian and Mohammedan, which fed the market of Bruges with their commodities. The natives were content to let foreigners carry on the business of transportation; they stayed at home and grew rich from the wares, money and credit instruments which commerce brought to their doors.

124. Decline of Bruges in the fifteenth century; rise of Antwerp.—Partly because of this passive part which they assumed, partly because of the practice of medieval countries in diverting their trade from one place to another, the people of Bruges had but a precarious hold on their commerce, and lost it in the fifteenth century. The silting up of its harbors, making these unfit to hold the larger ships now coming into use, explains in part the decline of Bruges, but political forces were at work also to divert commerce to another center. In the fifteenth century the place of Bruges as the great market of northern Europe was taken by Antwerp, which had fought its way up against all rivals, and which held the leadership now for one hundred years.

125. Conditions of commerce in England.—England lay on the outside of the great currents of medieval commerce. It had an advantage which it had enjoyed since pre-Roman times, the practical monopoly of tin production in Europe; and added to this in the latter part of the Middle Ages a still more important monopoly, that of wool production. Sheep were raised, of course, in other parts of Europe, and the merinos of Spain yielded a finer grade of wool than could be produced in England. For some reason, however, the sheep industry did not prosper elsewhere as it did in England. Possibly the constant wars and raids which disturbed the feudal states of the continent may have prevented the production of a commodity which could be so easily destroyed or carried off as booty. At any rate, the more settled political conditions in England, where internal war became soon a rare exception, favored the development of all the national resources. Aided by the prevalence of peace at home, and by the disappearance of feudal tolls on trade, the English advanced rapidly in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and instead of exporting the raw wool began to make it into cloth and to export the finished product. Trade was furthered also by the continental conquests of English kings, which brought England and the South of France into close relationship, and built up a large import trade in French wines.

126. English trade passive until the close of the Middle Ages.—Most of the trade in English wares, however, was in the hands of foreigners until the very close of the Middle Ages. The English kings showed more interest in the development of their resources by the encouragement of alien merchants than they showed in the extension of commerce carried on by natives. Hanseatics and Venetians fetched and carried the wares of distant countries for the English; and the “Merchants of the Staple,” a society composed largely of aliens, enjoyed a legal monopoly of the export of the most important raw materials which England supplied to European commerce—wool and sheepskins, leather, tin, and lead.

English merchants became restive in the inferior position assigned to them both at home and abroad, and before the end of the Middle Ages began to fight for equal rights or for privileges, but they did not secure final and complete victory until the beginning of the modern period, in the sixteenth century.

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