Trade #02
Or What Was the Hanse Actually Good for?
Trading in fabrics is the order of the day in the Hanse era – only few merchants do not trade them. This trade overcame long distances and was not an easy undertaking: There are up to 2,000 km as the crow flies between the manufacturing, buying and selling places of Hanse trade, which are overcome by ship and by cart over land. Apart from the main places of purchase in Bruges and London, other markets in the Netherlands also play a role. Simple linen fabrics come mainly from the Dutch and North German regions. The Hanse trade supplies its own cities, Scandinavia and the entire Baltic region with high-quality cloth. The most easterly Hanse outlet is Novgorod in present-day Russia.
Although the textile trade is lucrative, the long journey of the fabrics by water and land is also associated with many not only time-consuming, but also costs, difficulties and dangers.
This is where the Hanse came into play: It provided common terms and conditions and problem-solving strategies, especially for trade over long distances. Rather than trading in wares itself, the Hanse established the rules for Hanse merchants to trade as successfully as possible – in cloth too.
It was the Hanse commercial policy that established general terms of trade in the first place. So-called charters – prerogatives issued by princes – specified low or set tariffs, among other things, for the first time. This applied to English woollen cloth, for instance, on which Hanse merchants had paid even less customs for its export from England than English merchants since 1347.
Other objectives of Hanse commercial policy in the textile trade were assurance of wares’ quality and protection against fraud. Priority was given to assuring consistent quality of cloths in trade and making quality wares readily identifiable. The hundreds of different varieties of cloth in the Hanse export trade were only a reliable commodity whenever they strictly followed these production standards and were clearly identifiable. “Trademarked cloths” were woven and made following the respective city council’s length, width, thickness or even colour specifications. In 1401, defects in “branded cloth” from Flanders caused dissatisfaction in Novgorod. The Russian merchants therefore demand a new, fee-based inspection of goods on site, the cost of which would have reduced trading profits. The Hanse can avert this by demanding faultless products from the producers – otherwise it wants to prohibit its own merchants from trading with them.
The marking of goods is a constant subject of dispute. If there are problems in this regard, if they are not complied with, the Hanse’s offices or assemblies serve as a complaints body and deal with emissaries from the places of production. If a trademark is not reliable or clearly recognisable, the Hanse tries to restrict trade in the cloth in question. For Novgorod, Hanse regulations even stipulate which brands are allowed on the market at all.
The Hanse thus endeavored to require all parties involved in trade to uphold common standards and to monitor their compliance as far as possible. Numerous Hanse ordinances were geared towards “the merchant not being cheated”, thus ensuring smooth trade.
Privilege of King Edward VI (1547). Facsimile Europäisches Hansemuseum. EHM00048.
Confirmation of the Hanseatic privileges by King Edward VI of England in 1547. Confirmation of the Hanse privileges by King Edward VI of England in 1547. The splendid document contains copies of all special rights that the Hanse merchants had secured for themselves in England over time.
© Olaf Malzahn
Anonymous: Tuchhändler Seitz Lang (1434). Lavierte Federzeichnung auf Papier. Maße: 22,4 × 20,5 cm. In: Hausbuch der Mendelschen Zwölfbrüderstiftung, Band I (1426–1549). Stadtbibliothek im Bildungscampus Nürnberg. Amb. 317.2°, f. 55v.
Seitz Lang, a South German colleague of the Hanse merchants, at his sales table with green, blue and red cloth; in the foreground lies a bale ready for trading
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