Hanseatic League

Medieval federation of north German cities which for centuries was of great commercial and political importance. Germany's foreign trade dates from very early times; in England, for example, Aethelred II (978-1016) granted to 'the emperor's men' equality with English merchants in trading privileges, and a Gildhalla Teutonicorum was established in London by Rhineland merchants under Henry II. The rent of this guildhall (two shillings per annum) was remitted by Richard Coeur de Lion as an acknowledgment of the reception given him at Cologne on his way home from captivity.

While the Cologners thus prospered in England, other Germans were busy elsewhere. Early in the 13th century Wisby (in Gotland) was the centre of a mercantile association which monopolised the Baltic trade, and extended its operations eastward to Novgorod and westward to England. In 1241 Hamburg and Lübeck formed a league to protect themselves against pirates, robber barons, and the tolls and exactions of feudal nobles. They were joined by other cities, and the Hanseatic League (Hansa, a defensive alliance) soon absorbed the Wisby association, and not only became paramount in the Baltic, but rivalled the Cologners in England, obtaining from Henry III permission to found a new settlement in London. After some years of contention the rivals amalgamated, and their Stahlhof, or Steelyard, became the centre of London's commerce, the Cologners retaining the chief interest.

In Germany the League made Lübeck its capital city; all disputes were referred there and from 1260 onward a diet was held there every third year. About 85 cities joined the Hansa, and were arranged in four districts with Lübeck, Cologne, Brunswick, and Danzig, as their centre. There were four great 'factories' at London, Bruges, Bergen, and Novgorod, of which Bergen was said to be more German than Norwegian, Bruges more Hanse than the Hanse towns, and in London the Gildhalla, lending money to Edward III and other kings, received from them valuable privileges and monopolies which led to serious quarrels with English merchants, especially as the latter had no corresponding advantages abroad.

About the time of Henry VII the League export of English cloth was 40 times greater than that sent out in English ships. During the 14th and 15th centuries the Hansa, though never formerly recognised by the Empire, was stronger than most of the rulers with whom it had dealings. It had its own financial system and courts of justice, enforcing it decrees by fines, and, if necessary, by war. Strict discipline was maintained among its members, any recalcitrant city being liable to exclusion. Some monarchs who defied it were overwhelmed; for example, Waldemar of Denmark (1369). But several causes gradually tended to weaken its power; the discoveries of Columbus and Vasco da Gama diverted the course of trade, the Baltic fishery declined, and political changes in Germany made princes stronger and cities weaker. The Dutch, after a hard fight, secured much of the Baltic and North Sea trade, and south Germany competed for inland commerce, while the London monopoly, already in fact broken by the activities of rival English merchants, was formally abolished by Elizabeth in 1598. The Thirty Years War broke the remaining power of the League, and the ruin was completed by a disastrous Scandinavian war, after which it was dissolved.

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