CITIES OF NORTHERN GERMANY
It was the Baltic commerce which brought the cities of northern Germany into a firm union. From the Baltic region came large quantities of dried and salted fish, especially herring, wax candles for church services, skins, tallow, and lumber. Furs were also in great demand. Every one wore them during the winter, on account of the poorly heated houses. The German cities which shared in this commerce early formed the celebrated Hanseatic [27] League for protection against pirates and feudal lords.
MEMBERSHIP OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE
The league seems to have begun with an alliance of Hamburg and Lübeck to safeguard the traffic on the Elbe. The growth of the league was rapid. At the period of its greatest power, about 1400 A.D., there were upwards of eighty Hanseatic cities along the Baltic coast and in the inland districts of northern Germany.
HANSEATIC "FACTORIES"
The commercial importance of the league extended far beyond the borders of Germany. Its trading posts, or "factories," at Bergen in Norway and Novgorod in Russia controlled the export trade of those two countries. Similar establishments existed at London, on the Thames just above London Bridge, and at Bruges in Flanders. Each factory served as a fortress where merchants could be safe from attack, as a storehouse for goods, and as a general market.
INFLUENCE OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE
The Hanseatic League ruled over the Baltic Sea very much as Venice ruled over the Adriatic. In spite of its monopolistic tendencies, so opposed to the spirit of free intercourse between nations, the league did much useful work by suppressing piracy and by encouraging the art of navigation. Modern Germans look back to it as proof that their country can play a great part on the seas. The Hanseatic merchants were also pioneers in the half-barbarous lands of northern and eastern Europe, where they founded towns, fostered industry, and introduced comforts and luxuries previously unknown. Such services in advancing civilization were comparable to those performed by the Teutonic Knights. [28]
DECLINE OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE
After several centuries of usefulness the league lost its monopoly of the Baltic trade and began to decline. Moreover the Baltic, like the Mediterranean, sank to minor importance as a commercial center, after the Portuguese had discovered the sea route to India and the Spaniards had opened up the New World. [29] City after city gradually withdrew from the league, till only Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen remained. They are still called free and independent cities, though now they form a part of the German Empire.