The Hanse in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Abstract

The Hanse, an organization of towns and traders in medieval and early modern Europe, was a unique phenomenon. At the same time, it was embedded in the northern European urban and mercantile culture. The contributions in this volume therefore seek to highlight the atypical features of the Hanse, and place them in a wider context of common roots, influences and parallel developments. New research is presented on the origin and growth of the Hanse, the organization of trade, legal history, interaction with non-Hansards and transitions in the Hanse in the early modern period. Moreover, the historiography of the Hanse, problems of source criticism and possibilities for future research are discussed. The volume is an inspiring guide to Hanse studies. Contributors are

The concept of language of trust and trustworthiness: (Why) history matters

“…Traders from northern German cities started to organise themselves in groups while trading abroad as early as the twelfth century, and they dominated the commerce in the North Sea and Baltic areas until the sixteenth century. Their intensive cooperation gave rise to the cooperation of their cities in the fourteenth century, which turned the Hanse into a political power, as well (Hammel-Kiesow, 2015;Selzer, 2010;Harreld, 2015;Wubs-Mrozewicz, 2013). Also at the interurban level, historians have underlined that trust was needed because even in its own time, it was a peculiar urban organisation that challenged the legal definitions of collective liability and power structures.…”

“…Some of these historians have employed the concept of the language of trust in studies of trade relations in the premodern Mediterranean (Trivellato, 2009;Aslanian, 2006 andCourt, 2004 and, and I will briefly outline here what this magnifying glass has revealed about the interaction. This research has influenced my own studies on the Hanse as a medieval organisation of cities and traders in northern Europe: I will draw here on the conclusions I have made so far on the form, function and content of the language of trust and trustworthiness on these macro and micro levels (Wubs-Mrozewicz 2013, 2018a, 2018b. This will provide insight into how trust was conceived of and expressed by Hanseatic traders, and as mentioned above, give an indication of what they perceived as essential for doing business and living in commercial cities.…”

German Merchants in Novgorod: Hospitality and Hostility, Twelfth–Fifteenth Centuries

“…Anyway, day-to-day contacts could not be effectively eliminated by either the Hanseatic or Novgorodian party, and the evidence cited by Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz indicates that the administration of a Kontor (in this case, Bergen) could well turn a blind eye on such inappropriate contacts if the latter did not directly threaten the security of the community. 67 These and other informal contacts resulted in the emergence of a Novgorodian network of "secret friends" who would inform Hanseatic merchants of possible threats from the Novgorodian authorities. Such threats primarily concerned the seizure of their property and the detention of merchants themselves; neither was uncommon in the conditions of frequent trade wars between Novgorod and the Hanse.…”

Guests or Strangers? The Reception of Visiting Merchants in the Towns of the Baltic Rim, 1515–1559

“…Emphasis is placed on Baltic merchants as free agents in search of profit in loose, nonhierarchical networks of mid-level merchants. 6 Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz and Stuart Jenks describe the long-distance trade around the Baltic as different from that of other important regions, like the Mediterranean and southern Europe, because of its small-scale and flexible trading partnerships. They argue that larger companies were rare, and that most merchants would prefer to spread their risk by entering into multiple, separate partnerships rather than organize themselves in large corporations.…”