About the middle of the twelfth century, Lubeck was founded; and it soon became a place of considerable trade, being the resort of merchants from all the countries of the North, and having a mint, custom-house, &c. We shall afterwards be called upon to notice it more particularly, when we come to trace the origin and history of the Hanseatic League. At present we shall only mention, that within thirty years after it was founded, and before the establishment of the League, Lubeck was so celebrated for its commerce, that the Genoese permitted its merchants to trade in the Mediterranean on board their vessels, on the same footing with their own citizens. The success of the Lubeckers stimulated the other inhabitants of this part of the Baltic shores; and the bishop of Lunden founded a city in Zealand, for the express purpose of being a place of trade, as its name, Keopman's haven, Chapman's haven, (Copenhagen,) implies. Towards the close of this century, Hamburgh is noticed as a place of trade.
The two cities of Lubeck and Hamburgh are generally regarded as having laid the foundation of the Hanseatic League. This League was first formed, solely to protect the carriage by land of merchandize between these cities; it is supposed to have been began about the middle of the thirteenth century. Other cities soon joined the League, and its objects became more multiplied and extensive; but still having the protection and encouragement of their commerce principally in view. The total number of confederated cities was between seventy and eighty. Lubeck was fixed upon as the head of the League: in it the assemblies met, and the archives were preserved. Inland commerce, the protection of which had given rise to the League, was still attended to; but the maritime commerce of the Baltic, as affording greater facilities and wealth, was that with which the League chiefly occupied itself. The confederated cities were the medium of exchange between the productions of Germany, Flanders, France, and Spain; and the timber, metals, fish, furs, &c. of the countries on this sea.
The conquest and conversion of the pagan countries between the Vistula and the Gulf of Finland, by the Teutonic knights, was favourable to the commercial views of the confederated cities; for the conquerors obliged the natives to confine their attention and labour exclusively to agriculture, permitting Germans alone to carry on commerce, and engage in trade. Hence Germans emigrated to these countries; and the League, always quicksighted to their own interests, soon connected themselves with the new settlers, and formed commercial alliances, which were recognized and protected by the Teutonic knights. Elbing, Dantzic, Revel, and Riga, were thus added to the League--cities, which, from their situation, were admirably calculated to obtain and forward the produce of the interior parts of Poland and Russia.
The northern countries of the Baltic shore, in a great measure inattentive to commerce, and distracted by wars, were supplied by the League with money, on condition that they should assign to them the sources of wealth which their mines supplied, and moreover grant them commercial privileges, immunities, and establishments. Lubeck was chiefly benefited and enriched by the treaties thus formed; for she obtained the working of the mines of Sweden and Norway, which do not seem to have been known, and were certainly not productively and effectively worked before this time. The League also obtained, by various means, the exclusive herring fishery of the Sound, which became a source of so much wealth, that the "fishermen were superintended, during the season, with as much jealousy as if they had been employed in a diamond mine."
Towards the close of the thirteenth century, the king of Norway permitted the League to establish a factory and the staple of their northern trade at Bergen. A singular establishment seems soon to have been formed here: at first the merchants of the League were permitted to trade to Bergen only in the summer months; but they afterwards were allowed to reside here permanently, and they formed twenty-one large factories, all the members of which were unmarried, and lived together in messes within their factories. Each factory was capable of accommodating about one hundred merchants, with their servants. Their importations consisted of flax, corn, biscuit, flour, malt, ale, cloth, wine, spirituous liquors, copper, silver, &c.; and they exported ship-timber, masts, furs, butter, salmon, dried cod, fish-oil, &c.
As the grand object of the League was to secure to themselves the profits arising from the mutual supply of the north and south of Europe, with the merchandize of each, they had agents in France, Spain, &c. as well as in the countries on the Baltic. England, at this period, did not carry on much commerce, nor afford much merchandize or produce for exportation; yet even in it the Hanseatic League established themselves. Towards the end of the thirteenth century they had a factory in London, and were allowed to export wool, sheep's skins, and tin, on condition that they kept in repair the gate of the city called Bishopsgate: they were also allowed the privilege of electing an alderman.
Bruges, which is said to have had regular weekly fairs for the sale of the woollen manufactures of Flanders so early as the middle of the tenth century, and to have been fixed upon by the Hanseatic League, in the middle of the thirteenth, as an entrepôt for their trade, certainly became, soon after this latter period, a city of great trade, probably from its connection with the Hanseatic League, though it never was formally admitted a member. We shall afterwards have occasion to notice it in our view of the progress of the Hanseatic League.
As the commerce of the League encreased and extended in the Baltic, it became necessary to fix on some depôt. Wisby, a city in the island of Gothland, was chosen for this purpose, as being most central. Most exaggerated accounts are given of the wealth and splendour to which its inhabitants rose, in consequence of their commercial prosperity. It is certain that its trade was very considerable, and that it was the resort of merchants and vessels from all the north of Europe: for, as the latter could not, in the imperfect state of navigation, perform their voyage in one season, their cargoes were wintered and lodged in magazines on shore. At this city was compiled a code of maritime laws, from which the modern naval codes of Denmark and Sweden are borrowed; as those of Wisby were founded on the laws of Oleren, (which will be noticed when we treat of the commerce of England during this period,) and on the laws of Barcelona, of which we have already spoken; and as these again were, in a great measure, borrowed from the maritime code of Rhodes.
But to return to the more immediate history of the Hanseatic League,--about the year 1369 their power in the Baltic was so great, that they engaged in a successful war with the king of Denmark, and obliged him, as the price of peace, to deliver to them several towns which were favourably situated for their purpose.
The Hanseatic League, though they were frequently involved in disputes, and sometimes in wars, with France, Flanders, Holland, Denmark, England, and other powers, and though they undoubtedly aimed at, not only the monopoly, but also the sovereignty of the Baltic, and encroached where-ever they were permitted to fix themselves, yet were of wonderful service to civilization and commerce. "In order to accomplish the views of nature, by extending the intercourse of nations, it was necessary to open the Baltic to commercial relations; it was necessary to instruct men, still barbarous, in the elements of industry, and to familiarize them in the principles of civilization. These great foundations were laid by the confederation; and at the close of the fifteenth century, the Baltic and the neighbouring seas had, by its means, become frequented routes of communication between the North and the South. The people of the former were enabled to follow the progress of the latter in knowledge and industry." The forests of Sweden, Poland, &c. gave place to corn, hemp, and flax; the mines were wrought; and, in return, the produce and manufactures of the South were received. Towns and villages were erected in Scandinavia, where huts only were before seen: the skins of the bear and wolf were exchanged for woollens, linens, and silks: learning was introduced; and printing was scarcely invented before it was practised in Denmark, Sweden, &c.