The Hansa League

When they tell the story of the origins of financial instruments and markets, most financial historians  begin in the Middle East, and go via the Mediterranean to the Northwest of Europe. Along the way financial instruments were introduced to communities of merchants, and improved. It is not mere chance that this route coincides with the string of successful pre-industrial economies – the Abbasid caliphate, medieval Italy, the early-modern Low Countries, and England on the brink of the Industrial Revolution – for financial historians firmly believe in a link between the growth of real economy and financial markets. In this respect the towns of the Hanseatic League, which formed a successful trade network in the North and Northwest of Europe, in the late Middle Ages, do not really fit into the story: financial instruments and markets of these towns hardly play a role in the grand narrative of financial history. Focusing on oft-used indicators for the performance of financial markets – size and scope of financial transactions, and liquidity of financial instruments – we contribute to the positioning of late-medieval Hansa towns in financial history. These were thin markets, connecting various social groups, and also offering creditors ample possibilities to resell their financial instruments. Contrary to what is often assumed, financial instruments issued by public bodies only played a modest role in these markets: rather, annuities issued by  private parties helped to redistribute savings.

La ciudad de Lübeck fue fundada a mediados del s. XII por el Duque de Sajonia, Enrique III el León. Gracias a su posición estratégica entre los ríos Trave y Wakenitz, los privilegios concedidos, primero por el Duque y más tarde por el Emperador del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico, Federico I Barbarroja, al conseguir el título de Ciudad Libre Imperial, el control de recursos estratégicos, de las rutas comerciales del Mar Báltico y del Marte del Norte así como una activa diplomacia, la ciudad consiguió una gran prosperidad que la llevaría a ser considerada “La Reina de la Hansa”. Este artículo busca estudiar la fundación y el auge de esta urbe.

En el anterior artículo, vimos como Lübeck tras ser fundada y dotada de privilegios, por Enrique III el León, Duque de Sajonia consigue expandirse diplomática y comercialmente hasta formar la llamada Liga Hanseática. Este articulo tiene como objetivo el estudio de la composición de la Hansa; sus instituciones, decadencia y su supervivencia a lo largo del tiempo desde el s. XV hasta finales del s. XIX.

There were only a few countries whose nobility did not take part in the campaigns of the Teutonic Order against the Lithuanians (Reisen). The popularity of these military actions reached its zenith in the second half of the fourteenth century. The Kingdom of England – thanks to its significant contribution to the campaigns – surpassed other participants, and its close cooperation with the Teutonic Order was not simply confined to military actions. England sought to support the military order, and thus the cause of Christianity in the Baltic, by offering different means of help: military, diplomatic and financial. The primary goal of this paper is to follow the course of the diplomatic relationship between the two parties after 1410, especially from a Teutonic point of view. As a result of personal contacts established during the Fifth Crusade (1217–1221) and the growing fame of the Order, the English crown started to support the young institution financially, and, from the fourteenth century on, also militarily. Interestingly, in contrast with former English undertakings, military actions led by members of the royal family in the 1390s became popular. However, after 1394, significant English participation suddenly came to an end. Although English military assistance did not arrive in Prussia from overseas, the Teutonic Order did not give up the hope of gaining financial or diplomatic aid from its old ally. Reviewing the correspondence between the two countries after 1410, one can state that, except in the immediate aftermath of Tannenberg/Grunwald/ Žalgiris, most of this was confined to commercial matters. This result coincides with the conclusion drawn by the termination of the annual English rent at the turn of the 14–15th century: England was no longer interested in the wars of the Teutonic Order or, at least, it did not expect to make much profit from supporting an institution of now questionable legitimacy.

Статья посвящена исследованию ряда важнейших аспектов истории новгородского веча XI-XV вв. С привлечением мало- или почти не привлекавшихся для изучения проблемы ганзейских документов на средненижненемецком языке рассматриваются количество участников веча, способ принятия решений на вече, сущность веча как политического института

Until today scholars tend to denote every individual use of force at sea as „piracy“. In contrast, I want to advocate a general revision of our measures of understanding force and violence in pre-modern maritime history. By methodological considerations, comparisons with the Mediterranean and three exemplary case studies from the Baltic around the year 1400, the current concepts of research will be scrutinised regarding their anachronistic and unscholarly implications and the basic lack of reliability of the sources. Instead, we should consider the use of force and the privation of goods as neutral phenomena, in order to be able to ascertain precisely actors, norms, practices and functions, as well as their diachronic change.

This article examines the cultural and social dynamics of a multi-ethnic medieval town. Taking the lower town of Tallinn as a case study, this paper identifies the major urban ethnic  groups living in the town and discusses their co-existence, self-definition, and processes of categorization. It explores ambiguities arising from daily interactions in the shared physical landscape of the town, such as material exchanges, and the development of new technological solutions, and the simultaneous insistence on maintenance of sharp inter-group boundaries. As material culture plays a significant role in the negotiation of identities and in visualizing sameness and difference, emphasis is placed on the ways objects were
used in the daily lives of Tallinn’s multi-ethnic communities.

В статье представлены параллельные (на средненижненемецком и русском языках) версии послания в Новгород, составленных в Ревеле в 1425 г. Внимание привлекла идиома, не характерная для обычного формульного состава средневековых официаль- ных писем между Ганзой и Новгородом; ее анализу посвящена статья. Если в немецком это выражение оказывается формулой правовой прозы, восходящей, по свидетельству англосаксонских законов, к древней устной судебной клятве, то для русского эк- вивалента, употребленного переводчиком, не устанавливается юридического значения. Однако общее происхождение этого вы- ражения в обоих языках, связывающее его с раннехристианской молитвой, объясняет и оправдывает его выбор.

The paper deals with parallel Middle Low German and Russian ver- sions of a letter to Novgorod, both composed in the city of Reval in 1425. An idiomatic expresion deviating from the usual formulaic wording of medieval Hanseatic-Novgorodian charters catches atten- tion and requires analysis. In German it is an established expression in legal prose, going back to an old oral oath documented as early as Anglo-Saxon law. Although the Russian phrase used by the translator shows no traces of legal functioning, a common origin traced back to Early Christian prayer, explains and justifies his choice.

https://www.fcede.es/site/es/libros/detalles.aspx?id_libro=19489#fragmentos

El estudio de los escasos regímenes republicanos existentes en la Europa Moderna ha oscilado entre el protagonismo concedido a estos entramados políticos de marcada raigambre urbana y fuerte desarrollo mercantil por aquellos que los presentan como un modelo alternativo e innovador, y el papel subsidiario asignado por los que ponen el acento en el estudio de la Corte y las relaciones dinásticas. Al carácter polisémico del concepto república ha venido a sumarse el uso arbitrario del término republicanismo que ha suscitado un enorme interés historiográfico. El impacto de los trabajos de la Escuela de Cambridge explica el protagonismo de un enfoque prevalentemente atlántico y anglosajón de dicho fenómeno. Una narrativa unilineal sustentada en el establecimiento de esquemas binarios (monarquía/república, absolutismo/parlamentarismo, arcaísmo/progreso) que acentúa el camino divergente adoptado por las repúblicas respecto a las transformaciones experimentadas por las monarquías europeas desde finales del siglo XV.
Fruto de la reflexión conjunta de un equipo de veinte investigadores europeos, este libro apuesta por un análisis entrecruzado entre las repúblicas y los sistemas dinásticos con los que entretejieron fuertes elementos de articulación y dependencia. Para ello se han incorporado al cuadro de análisis toda una serie de actores que suelen quedar relegados como las ciudades hanseáticas, las repúblicas de Génova o Lucca, así como de realidades políticas de naturaleza mixta, como el principado de Transilvania o la Monarquía Hispánica, considerada como una monarquía de repúblicas urbanas. Se trata de poner el acento en la pluralidad de los lenguajes republicanos, así como en la diversidad de modelos operativos expresión del imponente grado de fragmentación y complejidad de los modelos estatales durante el Antiguo Régimen.

In Norway, pottery from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries is always imported and mostly concentrated in the urban centres. The few finds of pottery from this period in a non-urban context can, however, shed light on the spreading of a continental or Hanseatic culture into the periphery of this country. This paper provides a broad overview of archaeological finds of pottery from Bergen and their implications as sources of cultural history. Furthermore, this paper presents various rural and underwater finds of late medieval and early modern pottery in different regions of Norway, along with a discussion of a possible interpretation of the finds as sources for Hanseatic history.

The legal Statutes of the German merchants' yard in Novgorod the Great (Saint Peter's yard, in German Peterhof) – the foundation of Hanseatic trade in Russia during the 12th-16th centuries – are presented here in three pivotal versions from the early 13th century, 1361 and 1603. They render a detailed documentary account of the life of the German community: its structure and functions, legal regulations, everday life and contacts with the natives of Novgorod. New editions of the (Middle Low) German texts were made according to the original manuscripts (some of which were thought to be lost in WW2) and accompanied by parallel Russian translations; the version of 1603 is appearing in Russian for the first time. Numerous facsimiles illustrate the manuscripts, now held in 6 European archives and librararies.
A historic and legal document, marking a crucial meeting point of Russian and German cultures, the Scra of Novgorod is equally important to historians, philologists, and students of law; the book will also fascinate everyone curious about some brilliant yet insufficiently known moments of Russia's past. 
Книга посвящена уставу немецкого купеческого подворья (Петрова двора) в Великом Новгороде – опорного пункта русской торговли с Ганзой в XII-XVI веках. Три ключевые редакции Новгородской скры (XIII в., 1361 г. и 1603 г.), подробно документирующие все стороны внутренней организации, быта и правового положения немецкой общины в Новгороде, ее взаимоотношений с русским Новгородом, представлены в параллельных (оригинальном средненижне-/верхненемецком и русском) текстах, причем последняя редакция издаётся по-русски впервые. В книге впервые использованы и изучены оригиналы рукописей, некоторые из которых считались навсегда утерянными во Второй мировой войне. Многочисленные иллюстрации представляют оригиналы из 6 европейских архивов и библиотек.
Находясь на стыке двух культур  – немецкой и русской – Новгородская скра представляет большой интерес для историков, юристов, филологов; книга также привлечет всех желающих ближе ознакомиться с яркими, но недостаточно известными страницами отечественной истории.

Medieval research in Estonia before the 1990s concentrated mainly on the history of peasants and agriculture. The new generation of historians who generally studied at the University of Tartu in the 1980s and 1990s substantially changed this situation. The amount of medieval research increased significantly, and the scope of research topics became much wider. Over the last two decades, medieval research in Estonia has discovered several new ways of history writing, such as microhistory, gender studies, oral history, the history of animals, etc., which have undoubtedly brought richer and more diverse knowledge about medieval history. This also enabled historians to provide a more comprehensive picture of society and the social, cultural, etc., development of Livonia in the Middle Ages.
Due to the active international cooperation, supported by the political changes in Europe at the end of the twentieth century, medieval Livonia increasingly became a topic of interest for scholars outside Estonia and Latvia. Over the last two decades the publication activity (including publications in foreign languages) of Estonian medievalists increased several times and certainly represents one of the most active and deeply internationally networked fields of the Estonian humanities. The central areas of medieval research in the 2000s and 2010s have been the Baltic Crusades, the history of the Teutonic Order, social history dominantly in the urban context, and the history of everyday culture. The outcome of interdisciplinary cooperation between historians, archaeologists and art historians has become important. A remarkable general tendency that can be observed is the more integrative presentation of medieval Livonian society compared to the traditional understanding. Research tends to stress interaction and mutual cultural impact between social and ethnic groups instead of conflict and isolation. The political history of medieval Livonia is dominated by examination of the activities of the Livonian Teutonic Order, and here it is remarkable that scholars have detailed account of the personal and political connections of individual actors outside Livonia, with the papal curia or emperor, for example. As the Tallinn City Archives are one of the bestpreserved medieval archives in the Hanse area, urban history and the history of Tallinn deserve closer attention. Scanty written sources make research into small towns a convoluted and sometimes even impossible task. Luckily, the absence of written records is sometimes compensated for by archaeological findings, which makes cooperation between historians and archaeologists in this research field necessary. Medieval research in Estonia has also focused on important ecclesiastical and religious processes, especially on the spread of the Lutheran Reformation in Livonia. Regarding both urban and rural populations, the themes of everyday life, such as food or festivals, became more important than traditional interest in international trade or agricultural productivity. The lack of personal and material resources has limited the work on medieval source publications. In this regard the digital age is without doubt a major new challenge to Estonian medievalists, and, furthermore, leads to innovative approaches to medieval history.

Este trabajo estudia la expresión latina Nauigare necesse est; uiuere non est necesse. En primer lugar, se intenta establecer su tradición desde la primera aparición de la cita en el historiador Plutarco –quien la atribuye a Pompeyo–, pasando por la medieval Liga hanseática –que hizo de ella su lema–, y llegando hasta discursos poéticos y político-retóricos posteriores, como los de Gabrielle D’Annunzio, Benito Mussolini, Fernando Pessoa, Caetano Veloso o Ulysses Guimarâes. En segundo lugar, se propone un análisis interdiscursivo de estos textos con el objetivo de conocer los diferentes matices y usos de la expresión. Asimismo, se abordan cuestiones relativas a la traducción que afectan a su interpretación.

Monetisation and Commercialisation in the Baltic Sea, 1050–1450 explores the varied uses of silver and gold in the Baltic Sea zone during the medieval period.

Ten original contributions examine coins and currencies, trade, economy, and power, taking care to avoid an out-of-date approach to economic history which assumes a progression from ‘primitive’ forms to ‘developed’ structures. Combining a variety of methodological approaches, and drawing on written sources, archaeological and numismatic evidence, and anthropological perspectives, the book considers the various ways in which silver and gold were used as monetary currency, fiscal instruments of power, and gifts in the High and Late Medieval societies of the Baltic Sea.

This book will appeal to scholars and students of medieval European history, as well as those interested in economic history, and the history of trade and commerce.

W wyniku realizacji postanowień traktatu pokojowego kończącego wojnę trzynastoletnią między zakonem niemieckim a wspieranym przez stany pruskie Królestwem Polskim dotychczasowe władztwo zakonne w Prusach podzielone zostało na dwie odrębne, choć powiązane części, tzw. Prusy Królewskie i Prusy Zakonne. Artykuł omawia relacje gospodarcze: handel dalekosiężny, detaliczny, przepływ ludzi i kapitału między największymi ośrodkami miejskimi obu części – Gdańskiem i Królewcem – w latach 1466–1525. W starszej historiografii pojawiały się tezy wskazujące na załamanie relacji gospodarczych między Prusami Królewskimi i Zakonnymi po podziale władztwa zakonnego. Opinie te wynikały z nieuwzględniania pełnej bazy źródłowej – koncentrowano się na źródłach umożliwiających kwantytatywne ujęcie problemu. Na podstawie analizy korespondencji oraz rozproszonych wpisów w księgach miejskich w tekście udowodniono intensywne kontakty handlowe i finansowe między największymi portami Prus. Relacje handlowe koncentrowały się na wymianie między Europą zachodnią a ziemiami litewskimi, w których oba miasta odgrywały istotną rolę. Dominował eksport soli, a w początku XVI stulecia także zboża z Żuław do Królewca, główną rolę w imporcie na Zachód odgrywały produkty zaplecza: drewno, popiół, chmiel. Z wymianą towarową nierozłącznie wiązał się przepływ gotówki oraz ludzi. Mieszkańcy Gdańska i miast królewieckich pożyczali sobie wzajemnie gotówkę, nabywali nieruchomości. Wyraźnie widoczny jest także przepływ czeladników, kramarzy. Tekst dowodzi, że w analizie kontaktów handlowych Gdańska, obok ksiąg celnych, konieczne jest wykorzystanie także licznie zachowanej korespondencji.

The sea as perceived in the writings of the Gdańsk shipmaster Caspar Weinreich, 1461–1496

The records made by the Gdańsk shipmaster Caspar Weinreich, though they survive in vestigial form, reveal a fairly
consistent view of the world as seen through the eyes of a man whose entire life was connected to the sea. These notes,
which the author believes were made for Weinrich’s personal use – one of these uses being to keep track of political rela‑
tions that had a bearing on the possibilities of trade and communications by sea – are not merely a factual register of events
and commercial records. They often convey emotions, doubts and, above all, a strong sense of Weinreich identifying with
his home port in Gdańsk.
To Weinreich the sea was not a terrifying force of nature, but primarily a realm of communications, trade and war,
where the most frequent threat came from human actions – for example, piracy. The sphere of communications is evi‑
denced indirectly by the mention of city ports – these were coastal information exchange sites. The shipmaster frequently
refers to letters and the first newspapers circulating around the Baltic Sea region.
Weinreich’s  mentality  was  more  rational  than,  for  example,  that  of  the  general  populace  to  whom  Simon  Grunau
(d. 1529/30), a Dominican priest from Gdańsk, addressed his sermons, feeding them with tales of sea marvels. Weinreich
sought divine intervention extremely seldom, and even then he turned directly to God the Father, which can be regarded
as symptomatic of the late 15th century and the growing criticism of religion. It seems that throughout his life Weinreich
relied far more on human skills. There is a glaring disparity in the requests for divine assistance recorded in Weinreich’s
notes and in those of his contemporary, the stallholder Jakob Lubbe (d. c. 1500). Weinreich expresses his admiration for
construction technology, as evidenced by his comments about the beauty of ships and his observations on architecture.
Both a ‘technical’ and mercantile mentality are reflected in his observations of the world, which he weighed and mea ‑
sured – for example, when writing about the growth of crops, the size of a hailstone, the height of a wall or the duration of
a downpour.

The author studies social and political conditions that defined the process of social disciplining in the Baltic towns. The aim of the text is to indicate whether a common, Hanseatic model of social disciplining was prevalent in the whole Baltic zone in the Late Middle Ages, or rather the regional premises were decisive in this respect. Of particular importance for the investigated topic are the laws limiting the luxury of clothes and family celebrations, which reflect the legislator’s concept of urban society.

The article is devoted to a study of Novgorodian social terms mentioned in the
Opasnaia Gramota, a charter which secured the inviolability of ambassadors during
their stays abroad; the charter dates from 1472. There are two extant copies of this
document: the original, written in Old Russian, and the contemporary Middle Low
German translation. The Old Russian version was published by Anna L. Khoroshkevich
in 1966. Now an edition of the Middle Low German translation is being
prepared in Germany. By comparing two versions of the same text written in two
different languages, one is able to draw some conclusions about the meaning of
social terms mentioned in the charter. References to ‘well-to-do people’ (zhitii liudi),
‘merchants’ (kuptsy), and ‘black people’ (chernye liudi) are of particular interest. Zhitii
liudi are called ‘well-to-do merchants’ (wolmagenden copluden) in the Middle Low
German translation. Relying on this fact (along with other data), one can assume
that at least in the 1470s, zhitii liudi may have been simultaneously merchants and
landowners. In other words, one can imagine that all zhitii were merchants but not
all merchants were zhitii. The charter shows also that the expression chernye liudi (in
the Middle Low German translation: de gemene lude) in 15th-century Novgorod stood
for the bulk of the common (but free) townsmen, and not for a particular group of
the population that did not possess full rights. Finally, the Middle Low German
translation of the charter clearly indicates that its author considered ‘merchants’
and ‘merchants’ children’ to have been either synonyms or similar terms without
any significant difference apart from some minor negligible nuances. He translates
both with the same expression, coplude kinderen, and distinguishes them from
‘merchants’ elders’ (oldesten kopluden).

This article argues that the dialect of the Norwegian city of Bergen lost the feminine gender already in the 13th or 14th century due to influence from the Middle Low German quantity system: Because Middle Low German, spoken in Bergen by influential Hansa merchants residing in the city, did not have a quantity opposition in unstressed syllables, the quantity opposition in the Bergen dialect was abandoned before the short final -n disappeared. Thus, the dialect lost the gender opposition in forms like eiginn : eigin, and also in many words that often are unstressed, like einn : ein, hinn : hin, etc.

In Norway, pottery from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries is always imported and mostly concentrated in the urban centres. The few finds of pottery from this period in a non-urban context can, however, shed light on the spreading of a continental or Hanseatic culture into the periphery of this country. This paper provides a broad overview of archaeological finds of pottery from Bergen and their implications as sources of cultural history. Furthermore, this paper presents various rural and underwater finds of late medieval and early modern pottery in different regions of Norway, along with a discussion of a possible interpretation of the finds as sources for Hanseatic history. 

As trust dwindles in public institutions, special economic zones and free cities will have an opportunity to introduce billions of people to new systems of transparent and accountable governance. Thousands of actual experiments in “extrastatecraft”—areas benefiting from concentrated reform—are under way, creating alternatives to the surrounding rent-seeking practices of politicians, bureaucracies, and crony capitalists. Successful areas including Singapore, Dubai, and Chinese Special Economic Zones are being invited to partner in the development of new free zones in poor regions. A new generation of World Cities – immigration-friendly areas of economic reform comparable in size to Hong Kong and Singapore—can be privately developed as havens for those who demonstrate skills and build reputations in online free markets. This paper maps opportunities for a New Hanseatic League of free zones and free cities to offer digital resources globally to fill voids left by dysfunctions in present systems of local, regional, and national governance. Such a network may be in a prime position to provide a legal framework for opening humanity’s next great frontiers in ways compatible with current international treaties. It can introduce “nondominium” structures (aligned with Elinor Ostrom’s contractual system for management of common pool resources) for humanity’s common heritage frontiers, and sponsor “tokenized” commercial ventures that contractually vest all on the planet as beneficiaries of cryptocurrencies issued by entrepreneurial seasteading and spacefaring ventures.