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Hanseatic League of Cities

The Hanseatic League (or Hansa) is a unique union (one might say, the herald of TNK;))), which united the North German trading cities in the 14-16th centuries. He controlled all trade in the Baltic and North Seas and had monopoly privileges elsewhere. Hansa, (the name comes from German. Hanse - "partnership"), arose as a result of the agreement of Lübeck with Hamburg in 1241.

At this time, under the influence of the ever-growing strength of the knights-robbers and due to the complete lack of public security, a union of burghers was created, which directed all its forces against the reigning lawlessness in order to preserve its capital.

A peculiar feature of this community was that it had no permanent organization - no central government, no general armed force, no navy, no army, not even general finances; individual members of the union all enjoyed the same rights, and the representation was entrusted to the main city of the union - Lubeck, quite voluntarily, since its burgomasters and senators were considered the most capable of doing business, and at the same time this city took on the associated costs of maintaining warships. The cities that were part of the union were removed from each other and separated by not belonging to the union, and often even by hostile possessions. True, these cities were for the most part free imperial cities, but nevertheless in their decisions they were often dependent on the rulers of the surrounding country, and these rulers, although they were German princes, were not always located in favor of the Hansa, and on the contrary, they often treated her unkindly and even hostilely, of course, except when they needed her help. The independence, wealth and power of the cities, which were the focus of the country's religious, scientific and artistic life, and to which its population gravitated, were a thorn in the eye of these princes. Therefore, they tried to harm cities as much as possible and often did it for the slightest reason and even without it.

Thus, the Hanseatic cities had to defend themselves not only from external enemies, since all the maritime powers were their competitors and would willingly destroy them, but also against their own princes. Therefore, the situation of the union was extremely difficult and he had to conduct a smart and careful policy in relation to all interested rulers and skillfully use all circumstances so as not to perish and not allow the union to disintegrate.

It was very difficult to keep within the union of the cities, coastal and inland, scattered across the space from the Gulf of Finland to the Scheldt, and from the sea coast to central Germany, since the interests of these cities were very different, and yet the only connection between them could be precisely only common interests; at the disposal of the union there was only one compulsory means - exclusion from it (Verhasung), which entailed the prohibition of all members of the union to have any business with the excluded city and should have led to the termination of all relations with it; however, there was no police authority overseeing this. Complaints and grievances could only be brought to the congresses of the union cities, which were collected from time to time, to which representatives from all cities, whose interests demanded this, were present. In any case, exclusion from the union was a very effective means against port cities; this was, for example, in 1355 with Bremen, which from the very beginning showed a desire for isolation, and which was forced, due to enormous losses, three years later to ask again for admission to the union.

Union cities were divided into three districts:
1) Eastern, Vendian region, to which Lubeck, Hamburg, Rostock, Wismar and the Pomeranian cities belonged - Stralsund, Greifswald, Anklyam, Stetin, Kohlberg, etc.
2) West Frisian-Dutch region, which included Cologne and the Westphalian cities - Zest, Dortmund, Groningen, etc.
3) And finally, the third region, consisted of Visby and cities located in the Baltic provinces, such as Riga and others.

In 1260, the first general congress of representatives of the Hansa was held in Lubeck.
The union finally took shape in 1367-1370. during the wars of German cities against Denmark, which dominated the trade routes between the North and Baltic seas. The nucleus of the union was made by the years. Lubeck, Hamburg and Bremen. Later, it also included coastal cities and towns that were associated with trade along the Oder and Rhine rivers - Cologne, Frankfurt, as well as the former Slavic cities, but captured by the Germans - Rostock, Danzig, Stargrad. The number of Hanseatic cities at different times reached 100-160, the framework of the union was never strictly delineated. At this time, the Hansa controlled practically all trade in the Baltic and North Seas, Central and Northern Europe, and was a powerful military and political force that many European states reckoned with.

From the very beginning to the end of the existence of the Hansa, Lubeck was its main city; this is proved by the fact that the local court in 1349 was declared an appellate instance for all cities, including Novgorod. In Lubeck, the Tagi (German Tag, congress) were convened - meetings of representatives of Hanseatic cities. "Tags" worked out generally binding statutes. A common flag was adopted, a code of laws (Hanseatic Scra).
In 1392, the Hanseatic cities entered into a monetary union and began to mint a common coin.

Hansa was a product of her time, and the circumstances were especially favorable for her. We have already mentioned the art and reliability of the German merchants, and their ability to apply to circumstances - qualities that can still be observed in all countries today. In those days, these qualities were all the more valuable because the Normans who inhabited England and France, treated trade with contempt and did not have any abilities for it; The inhabitants of the present-day Russian Baltic region - Poles, Livonian and others - did not have these abilities either. Trade in the Baltic Sea, as at present, was very developed and was even more extensive than at the present time; all along the coast of this sea there were Hanseatic offices everywhere. To this it must be added that the German coastal cities, and at their head Lubeck, perfectly understood the importance of sea power and were not afraid to spend funds on the maintenance of warships.

In the 14-15 centuries. through the mediation of the Hanseatic League, the main trade between Russia and the West was carried out. Wax and furs were exported from Russia - mainly squirrel, less often - leather, flax, hemp, silk. The Hanseatic League supplied to Russia salt and fabrics - broadcloth, linen, velvet, satin. Silver, gold, non-ferrous metals, amber, glass, wheat, beer, herring, and weapons were imported in smaller volumes. In the XV century. Novgorodians and Pskovians tried to actively oppose the predominance of the Hanseatic people in the field of foreign trade, and by the end of the 15th century. the order of trade was changed in favor of the Novgorodians. During this period, the center of the Russian-Hanseatic trade gradually moved to Livonia. In 1494, in response to the execution of Russian subjects in Reval (Tallinn), the Hanseatic trading office in Novgorod was closed. Under the Novgorod-Hanseatic treaty of 1514, representatives of the Livonian cities on behalf of the Hansa accepted all the demands of the Novgorodians and the German court in Novgorod was reopened. Formally, the Hanseatic League existed until 1669, although in fact already from the 16th century. he ceded the leading role in European trade to Dutch, English and French merchants.

And, as usual, a selection of links:

http://www.librarium.ru/article_69824.htm and http://www.germanyclub.ru/index.php?pageNum=2434 - Brief information

History of the Hanseatic League.

HB, HH, HL, HGW, HRO, HST, HWI - Bremen, Hamburg, Lubeck ... Why do the license plates of these and three other German cities start with an "additional" Latin letter H?

Bremen, Hamburg, Lubeck, Greifswald, Rostock, Stralsund, Wismar. Car numbers in these cities begin with an "additional" Latin letter H. In the Middle Ages, they all belonged to the Hanseatic League - Hanse, played a key role in it, for which they were awarded special marks of historical distinction. Their license plates: HB, HH, HL, HGW, HRO, HST, HWI, that is, Hansestadt - "Hanseatic city" - Bremen, Hansestadt Hamburg ...

Merchant Hansa - the predecessor of the Hansa city

In the period of its greatest prosperity in the XIV-XV centuries, the Hanseatic League united more than two hundred cities. According to some reports - up to three hundred. From the middle of the XII century, the city Hansa was preceded by the Hansa merchant - a community of German merchants who went to the city of Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland, and then to London, Bruges, Bergen, Veliky Novgorod. They traded in England, Flanders, Norway, Russia ... And the geography was constantly expanding.

Moving in a joint caravan was safer, not to mention the fact that merchant associations could finance the purchase and maintenance of their own inns - the so-called "offices", as well as seek general trade privileges abroad. To finance the communities, each merchant deducted a certain percentage of the profits.

At home, that is, on the territory of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, German merchants enjoyed the protection of the emperor. During the years of the struggle for power in the empire, and, in essence, anarchy, free German cities began to take care of the safety of their merchants themselves. In the middle of the 13th century, the first regional unions arose, and the development of the urban Hansa was initiated. The process was long and gradual. When the need arose later to find an agreement on the creation of the Hansa, such a document, to everyone's surprise, was not found in any of the archives.

The second reason for the emergence of the urban Hansa was the need for more effective protection of its merchants and their privileges from the growing competition, primarily from the Dutch and South German merchants, in particular from Nuremberg.

Free cities and medieval feudal lords

The number of cities that were part of the Hansa was constantly changing, but historians attribute about seventy of them to the core of this community. Most were located in the northern territories of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, that is, near the Baltic and North Seas. Bremen and Hamburg were among the largest members of the Hansa. Moreover, both have still retained their traditional independence: in modern Germany, they have the status of independent federal states. In addition to these cities, only Berlin now has such a status, but for other reasons. Its heyday and transformation into the German capital fell on a later period, when the Hansa had already ceased to exist.

Berlin was part of the Hansa, but was forced to leave this union in 1452 under pressure from the Margrave of Brandenburg. In addition to Berlin, several other cities in the territories of the margrave tried to jointly strengthen their independence from their land feudal lord, but were defeated. Among them were Frankfurt an der Oder and Stendal.

An illustrative example. German feudal lords, on the one hand, were interested in the economic benefits from the development of Hanseatic cities in their territories, especially since these cities did not receive the status of free and the corresponding privileges for free. They often acted as creditors, that is, they gave loans to their appanage princes. From abroad, they also turned to them for financial assistance. Cologne merchants once even credited the English king, for which they received his crown as a pledge!

Conflicts of interest

On the other hand, when cities became "too" influential, German secular and ecclesiastical feudal lords began to worry. They feared undermining their own power. Or just really wanted to get access to additional financial and other economic resources ... Berlin was weak and in this conflict of interest lost to its Brandenburg Margrave, but many other free cities successfully repelled such inclinations with the help of economic pressure or during armed conflicts, such as , Cologne.

To fight against appanage princes, Hanseatic cities often formed regional alliances, which were financed with a special temporary tax levied on trade operations (Pfundzoll). The same alliances were created during the conflicts of the Hansa with foreign states. This community did not have permanent sources of funding, as well as state sovereignty, officials, its own army and navy, permanent governing bodies, and an official seal. Against this backdrop, the Hansa's trade and political successes look even more impressive. In terms of its power and influence, the Hansa could be called a superpower, which for some reason was forgotten to be put on the political map of Europe.

Lubeck - mother of Hanseatic cities

The free imperial city of Lubeck was a kind of capital of the Hansa. Here, in particular, the Hanseatic Court of Appeal was located. Where there is trade, there are disputes. They arose constantly both between individual merchants and between entire cities. If abroad the Hanseatic cities and merchants (with rare exceptions) acted together to achieve their goals, then on the territory of the empire they were competitors, acting on the principle: friendship - friendship, and money apart.

Lubeck often took on the lion's share of the costs of wars and other conflicts. The city councilors and burgomasters of Lübeck often carried out delicate diplomatic missions, defending the interests of the community in negotiations with the German princes and neighboring states. The patience and perseverance of the Hanseatic diplomats are legendary ...

The Lübeck City Law (Lübisches Recht) became widespread in the Hanseatic League. It operated, for example, in Veliky Novgorod - the most important trading partner of the Hansa in the Russian lands. At the same time, the Lubeck law itself was at one time developed on the basis of the law of the German city of Soest. Now it is a small district center in North Rhine-Westphalia with a population of only 50 thousand inhabitants, and once Zost was one of the most important members of the Hansa. This is a fairly typical fate of many Hanseatic cities, the development of which actually stopped with the collapse of this union.

Red and White

Besides Lübeck, Cologne and Hamburg are among the most influential and oldest members of the Hansa. In their coats of arms, as in the heraldic signs of many other Hanseatic cities, there is white and red - the traditional colors of the Hansa.

Hamburg is now perhaps the most Hanseatic of all Hanseatic cities and supports this image in every possible way. However, in terms of tourism, smaller cities, in the form of which the Hanseatic past can be read more clearly, may be of no less, if not more, interest. Among them are Stralsund, Wismar and Luneburg. These cities will be covered in separate reports in our Hanseatic series.

Unlike Hamburg, in Cologne, the Hanseatic past is now relatively rarely remembered. Cologne is a special case. One of the oldest German cities dates back to the time of the ancient Romans. It was not a purely Hanseatic city. His merchants successfully traded throughout Europe long before the birth of this union. In a number of cases, the trade of the Hansa developed precisely along the paths laid by the Cologne merchants. The most telling example is the connections with London.

Gdansk and Riga became the outposts of the Hansa in the east of the continent ... Separate mention is made of the so-called Teutonic Order (Deutscher Orden), which owned lands in East Prussia. His interests at general meetings of the Hansa were represented directly by the Grand Master, and one of the most important centers of the order's trading activities was Königsberg. No other principalities or duchies were included in the Hansa.

Trade

The trade ties and interests of this community spread from Scandinavia to Italy, from Portugal to Russia. On the most important trade route were London, Bruges, Hamburg, Lubeck, Tallinn (in the Hanseatic chronicles - Reval), Novgorod.

Cloth and salt made up the bulk of goods in one direction, furs and wax in the other. This Hanseatic route brought Russian sables to Venice, where they were in great demand. Wheat, rye and barley, herring and dried fish, resin, salted butter, beer, metals and ores, timber, amber jewelry, Rhine wine - what and wherever Hanseatic merchants did not trade in medieval Europe ...

Source

In modern Germany, there is a special sign of historical distinction, evidence that seven cities of this state are the keepers of the traditions of a long-term, voluntary and mutually beneficial coalition, rare in history. This sign is H. It means that the cities in which the license plates begin with this letter were part of the Hanseatic League. The letters HB on the license plates should be read as Hansestadt Bremen - "Hanseatic city of Bremen", HL - "Hanseatic city of Lubeck". The letter H is also present on the license plates of Hamburg, Greifswald, Stralsund, Rostock and Wismar, which played a key role in the medieval Hansa.

The Hansa is a community in which free German cities united in the XIII-XVII centuries to protect merchants and trade from the rule of feudal lords, as well as to jointly confront pirates. The union included the cities in which the burghers lived - free citizens, they, unlike the subjects of kings and feudal lords, obeyed the norms of "city law" (Lubeck, Magdeburg). The Hanseatic League in different periods of its existence included about 200 cities, including Berlin and Dorpat (Tartu), Danzig (Gdansk) and Cologne, Koenigsberg (Kaliningrad) and Riga. To develop binding rules and laws for all merchants in Lubeck, which became the main center of maritime trade in the Northern Basin, a congress of the union members met regularly.

In a number of non-members of the Hansa, there were "offices" - branches and representative offices of the Hansa, protected by privileges from the encroachments of local princes and municipalities. The largest "offices" were located in London, Bruges, Bergen and Novgorod. As a rule, "German Courtyards" had their own berths and warehouses, and were also exempted from most of the fees and taxes.

According to some modern historians, the foundation of Lübeck in 1159 should be considered the event that marked the beginning of the creation of the trade union. The Hanseatic League was a rare example of a union in which all parties sought a common goal - the development of trade relations. Thanks to German merchants, goods from Eastern and Northern Europe came to the south and west of the continent: timber, furs, honey, wax, rye. Koggi (sailboats), loaded with salt, cloth and wine, went in the opposite direction.

In the 15th century, the Hanseatic League began to experience defeat after defeat at the hands of nation states that were re-emerging in its zone of England, the Netherlands, Denmark and Poland. The rulers of the growing countries did not want to lose export earnings, so they liquidated the Hanseatic trading yards. However, the Hansa survived until the 17th century. The most persistent participants in the virtually disintegrated coalition were Lubeck - a symbol of the power of German merchants, Bremen and Hamburg. These cities in 1630 entered into a tripartite alliance. The Hanseatic Trade Union collapsed after 1669. It was then that the last congress took place in Lubeck, which became the final event in the history of the Hansa.

An analysis of the experience of the first in a trade and economic association, its achievements and miscalculations is interesting both for historians and for modern entrepreneurs and politicians, whose minds are busy solving the problems of European integration.

GANSEAN UNION

“With consent, small deeds grow into big ones;
in case of disagreement, the big ones fall apart "(Sallust.)

Dmitry Voinov

In world history, there are not many examples of voluntary and mutually beneficial alliances concluded between states or any corporations. In addition, the overwhelming majority of them were based on self-interest and greed. And, as a result, they all turned out to be very short-lived. Any violation of the balance of interests in such an alliance invariably led to its collapse. So rare examples of long-term and lasting coalitions, where all the actions of the parties were subordinated to the ideas of cooperation and development, are becoming all the more attractive for comprehension, as well as for drawing instructive lessons.

In the history of Europe, such a model can fully become the Hanseatic League, which successfully existed for about four centuries. States collapsed, numerous wars began and ended, the political borders of the continent's states were redrawn, but the trade and economic union of the cities of northeastern Europe lived and developed.

How did the name “ Hansa"Is not known exactly. There are at least two versions among historians. Some believe that Hansa is a Gothic name and means "a crowd or a group of comrades", others believe that it is based on a middle German word translated as "union or partnership". In any case, the idea of ​​the name implied a kind of "unity" for the sake of common goals.

The history of the Hansa can be counted from the bookmark in 1158 (or, according to other sources, in 1143) of the Baltic city Lubeck... Subsequently, it was he who would become the capital of the union and a symbol of the power of German merchants. Before the foundation of the city, these lands for three centuries were the zone of influence of the Norman pirates who controlled the entire coast of this part of Europe. For a long time, their former strength was reminded of light deckless Scandinavian boats, the designs of which were adopted by German merchants and adapted for the transport of goods. Their capacity was small, but the maneuverability and speed were quite satisfactory for the merchant-seafarers until the XIV century, when they were replaced by heavier multi-deck vessels capable of carrying much more goods.

The union of Hanseatic merchants did not form immediately. This was preceded by many decades of understanding the need to combine their efforts for the common good. The Hanseatic League was the first trade and economic association in the history of Europe. By the time of its formation, there were over three thousand shopping centers on the coast of the northern seas. The low-powered merchant guilds of each of the cities could not single-handedly create conditions for safe trade. Torn apart by internecine wars, shattered Germany where the princes, to replenish their treasury, did not disdain to trade with ordinary robbery and robbery, the position of the merchant was not very enviable. In the city itself, he was free and respected. His interests were defended by the local merchant guild, here he could always find support in the person of his fellow countrymen. But, going beyond the city defensive ditch, the merchant was left alone with many difficulties that he encountered on the way.

Even when he arrived at his destination, the merchant was still taking great risks. Each medieval city had its own laws and strictly regulated rules of trade. Violation of sometimes one, even insignificant, point could threaten with serious losses. The scrupulousness of local legislators reached the point of absurdity. They determined how wide the cloth should be or the depth of the clay pots, from what time a trade could start and when it should end. Merchant guilds were jealous of competitors and even ambushed the approaches to the fair, destroying their goods.

With the development of cities, the growth of their independence and power, the development of crafts and the introduction of industrial methods of production, the problem of marketing became more and more urgent. Therefore, merchants increasingly resorted to concluding personal agreements among themselves for mutual support in a foreign land. True, in most cases they were temporary. Cities often quarreled, ruined each other, burned, but the spirit of enterprise and freedom never left their inhabitants.

External factors also played an important role in the unification of cities in the Hansa. On the one hand, the seas were full of pirates, and it was almost impossible to resist them alone. On the other hand, Lubeck, as the emerging center of the "partnership", had major competitors in the person of Cologne, Munster and other German cities. Thus, the English market was practically occupied by Cologne merchants. With the permission of Henry III, they founded their own office in London in 1226. The Lubeck merchants did not remain in debt. In the next year, Lubeck seeks from the German emperor the privilege of being called imperial, which means that he becomes the owner of the status of a free city, which allowed him to independently conduct his trade affairs. Gradually, it became the main transshipment port in the Baltic. Not a single ship sailing from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea could pass its harbor. The influence of Lübeck is further enhanced after local merchants took control of the Lüneburg salt mines located near the city. Salt in those days was considered almost a strategic commodity, the monopoly of which allowed entire principalities to dictate their will.

On the side of Lübeck in the confrontation with Cologne, Hamburg, but it took many years before these cities entered into a treaty among themselves in 1241 to protect their trade. The first article of the agreement, signed in the Lübeck City Hall, read: "If robbers and other evil people rise up against our or their townspeople ... then we, on the same basis, must participate in the expenses and expenditures for the destruction and eradication of these robbers." The main thing is trade, without obstacles and restrictions. Each city was obliged to defend the sea from pirates "according to the strength of the possibilities, so as to cope with their trade." 15 years later they were joined by Luneburg and Sprout.

By 1267, Lubeck had already accumulated enough strength and resources to openly declare its claims to a part of the English market. In the same year, using all his influence at the royal court, Hansa opens a sales office in London. From that time on, a powerful force began to resist the merchants from Scandinavia in the vastness of the North Sea. Over the years, it will grow stronger and grow a thousandfold. The Hanseatic League will not only determine the rules of trade, but often actively influence the balance of political forces in the border countries from the North to the Baltic Seas. He collected power bit by bit - sometimes amicably, concluding trade agreements with the monarchs of neighboring states, but sometimes with the help of violent actions. Even such a city as large by the standards of the Middle Ages as Cologne, which was a monopoly in German-English trade, was forced to surrender and sign an agreement to join the Hansa. In 1293, 24 cities formalized their membership in the "partnership".

UNION OF GANSEAN MUCHERS

Lubeck merchants could celebrate a complete victory. A vivid confirmation of their strength was the agreement signed in 1299, in which representatives Rostock, Hamburg, Wismar, Luneburg and Stralsund decided that "henceforth they will not serve the sailing ship of that merchant who is not included in the Hansa." It was a kind of ultimatum to those who have not yet joined the union, but at the same time it was a call for cooperation.

From the beginning of the 14th century, the Hansa became a collective monopoly of trade in northern Europe. One mention by a merchant of his involvement in it served as the best recommendation for new partners. By 1367, the number of cities - members of the Hanseatic League increased to eighty. In addition to London its sales offices were in Bergen and Bruges, Pskov and Venice, Novgorod and Stockholm... German merchants were the only foreign traders who had their own trading compound in Venice and for whom the northern Italian cities recognized the right to freely sail the Mediterranean.

The offices that the Hansa maintained were fortified points common to all Hanseatic merchants. In a foreign land, they were protected by privileges from local princes or municipalities. As guests of such trading posts, all Germans were subject to strict discipline. Hansa very seriously, jealously guarded her possessions. A system of espionage was developed in almost every city where the union's merchants traded, and even more so in the border administrative centers that were not part of it. Almost immediately it became known about any actions of competitors directed against them.

Sometimes these trading posts dictated their will to entire states. As soon as the rights of the union were infringed in the Norwegian Bergen in any way, restrictions on the supply of wheat to this country immediately came into force, and the authorities had no choice but to back down. Even in the west, where Hansa had dealings with stronger partners, she managed to knock out significant privileges for herself. For example, in London, the "Deutsche Yard" owned its own berths and warehouses and was exempted from most of the taxes and fees. They even had their own judges, and the fact that the Hanseatic people were entrusted with guarding one of the gates of the city already speaks not only of their influence on the English crown, but also of the undoubted respect they enjoyed in the British Isles.

It was at this time that the Hanseatic merchants began to organize their famous fairs. They took place in Dublin and Oslo, Frankfurt and Poznan, Plymouth and Prague, Amsterdam and Narva, Warsaw and Vitebsk. Dozens of European cities were eagerly awaiting their opening. Sometimes it was the only opportunity for local residents to buy whatever their heart desires. Here they bought what the families, denying themselves what they needed, saved money for many months. The shopping arcades were bursting with an abundance of oriental luxury, sophisticated and exotic household items. There, Flemish linen met English wool, Aquitanian skins with Russian honey, Cypriot copper with Lithuanian amber, Icelandic herring with French cheese, and Venetian glass with Baghdad blades.

The merchants were well aware that timber, wax, furs, rye, timber from Eastern and Northern Europe had value only when they were re-exported to the west and south of the continent. In the opposite direction were salt, cloth, wine. This system, simple and strong, ran into many difficulties, however. It was these difficulties that had to be overcome that fused together the totality of the cities of the Hansa.

The union has been tested for strength many times. After all, there was a certain fragility in him. The cities - and their number during the heyday reached 170 - were far from each other, and the rare meetings of their delegates to general ganzatags (seims) could not resolve all the periodically arising contradictions between them. Neither the state nor the church stood behind the Hansa, only the population of the cities, who were jealous of their prerogatives and proud of them.

Strength stemmed from a commonality of interests, from the need to play the same economic game, from belonging to a common "civilization" involved in trade in one of the most populous maritime spaces in Europe. An important element of unity was the common language, which was based on Low German, enriched with Latin, Polish, Italian and even Ukrainian words. Merchant families, turning into clans, could be found in Reval, and in Gdansk, and in Bruges. All these bonds gave rise to cohesion, solidarity, common habits and common pride, common limitations for all.

In the rich cities of the Mediterranean, everyone could play their own game and fight fiercely with their fellows for influence on the sea routes and the provision of exclusive privileges when trading with other countries. In the Baltic and the North Sea, this was much more difficult to do. Revenues from heavy, high-volume, low-cost cargo remained modest, while costs and risk were far from high. Unlike large shopping centers in southern Europe, such as Venice or Genoa, merchants from the northerners had a profit rate of 5% at best. In these parts, more than anywhere else, everything was required to accurately calculate, make savings, and foresee.

START OF SUNSET

The apogee of Lubeck and the cities associated with it came at a rather late time - between 1370 and 1388. In 1370, the Hansa took over the king of Denmark and occupied the fortresses on the Danish straits, and in 1388, as a result of a dispute with Bruges, after an effective blockade, she forced this rich city and the government of the Netherlands to capitulate. However, even then the first signs of a decline in the economic and political power of the union were outlined. Several decades later, they will become more evident. In the second half of the 14th century, a severe economic crisis broke out in Europe after a plague epidemic swept across the continent. In the annals of history, she entered as the Black Pestilence. True, despite the demographic decline, the demand for goods from the Baltic Sea basin in Europe did not decrease, and in the Netherlands, which was not much affected by the plague, even increased. But it was the price movement that played a cruel joke on Hansa.

After 1370, prices for cereals began to gradually fall, and then, starting in 1400, the demand for furs also fell sharply. At the same time, the demand for industrial products increased significantly, in the trade of which the Hanseatic people practically did not specialize. In modern terms, raw materials and semi-finished products were the basis of the business. To this can be added the incipient decline of the distant, but so necessary for the economy of the Hansa, gold and silver mines in the Czech Republic and Hungary. And, finally, the main reason for the beginning of the decline of the Hansa was the changed state and political conditions in Europe. In the zone of trade and economic interests of the Hansa, territorial national states are beginning to revive: Denmark, England, the Netherlands, Poland, the Moscow state. With the strong support of those in power, the merchants of these countries began to crowd out the Hansa throughout the North and Baltic Seas.

True, the encroachments did not go unpunished. Some cities of the Hanseatic League stubbornly defended themselves, as did Lübeck, which in the years 1470-1474 prevailed over England. But these were rather isolated cases, most of the other cities of the union preferred to negotiate with new merchants, re-divide the spheres of influence and develop new rules for interaction. The union had to adapt.

The Hansa received its first defeat from the Muscovite state, which was gaining strength. Her ties with Novgorod merchants spanned more than three centuries: the first trade agreements between them date back to the 12th century. For such a long period of time Veliky Novgorod became a kind of outpost of the Hansa not only in the north-east of Europe, but also in the lands of the Slavic peoples. The policy of Ivan III, who sought to unite the fragmented Russian principalities, sooner or later had to come into conflict with the independent position of Novgorod. In this confrontation, the Hanseatic merchants took an outwardly wait-and-see attitude, but secretly actively helped the Novgorod opposition in the fight against Moscow. Here the Hansa put its own, primarily commercial, interests at the forefront. It was much easier to get privileges for oneself from the Novgorod boyars than from the powerful Moscow state, which no longer wanted to have trade intermediaries and lose profits when exporting goods to the West.

With the loss of independence by the Novgorod Republic in 1478, Ivan III also liquidated the Hanseatic settlement. After that, a significant part of the Karelian lands, which were in the possession of the Novgorod boyars, became part of the Russian state, together with Novgorod. Since that time, the Hanseatic League has practically lost control over exports from Russia. However, the Russians themselves were not able to take advantage of all the advantages of independent trade with the countries of northeastern Europe. In terms of the quantity and quality of ships, the Novgorod merchants could not compete with the Hansa. Therefore, export volumes decreased, and Veliky Novgorod itself lost a significant part of its income. But the Hansa was also unable to compensate for the loss of the Russian market and, above all, access to strategic raw materials - timber, wax and honey.

She received the next strong blow from England. Strengthening her sole power and helping English merchants to free themselves from competitors, Queen Elizabeth I ordered the liquidation of the Hanseatic trading yard "Stilard". At the same time, all the privileges enjoyed by German merchants in this country were also destroyed.

Historians attribute the decline of the Hansa to Germany's political infantilism. The fragmented country initially played a positive role in the fate of the Hanseatic cities - there was simply no one stopping them from uniting. The cities, initially rejoicing in their freedom, remained left to themselves, but in completely different conditions, when their rivals in other countries enlisted the support of their states. An important reason for the decline was the obvious economic lag of northeastern Europe from western Europe by the 15th century. Unlike the economic experiments of Venice and Bruges, the Hansa still oscillated between natural exchange and money. Cities rarely resorted to loans, focusing mainly on their own funds and efforts, little trust in bill settlement systems and sincerely believed only in the power of the silver coin.

The conservatism of the German merchants, in the end, played a cruel joke on them. Unable to adapt to the new realities, the medieval "common market" gave way to associations of merchants exclusively on the basis of the national principle. Since 1648, the Hansa finally loses its influence on the alignment of forces in the field of maritime trade. The last gunzentag could hardly be assembled until 1669. After a heated discussion, without having settled the accumulated contradictions, the majority of the delegates leave Lubeck with the firm conviction never to meet again. Henceforth, each city wished to conduct its own trade affairs independently. The name of the Hanseatic cities was preserved only for Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen as a reminder of the former glory of the union.

The disintegration of the Hansa was objectively ripening in the depths of Germany itself. By the 15th century, it became obvious that the political fragmentation of the German lands, the arbitrariness of the princes, their feuds and betrayals became a brake on the path of economic development. Individual cities and regions of the country gradually lost their established ties for centuries. There was practically no exchange of goods between the eastern and western lands. The northern regions of Germany, where sheep breeding was mainly developed, also had little contact with the industrial southern regions, which increasingly focused on the markets of the cities of Italy and Spain. The further growth of world trade relations of the Hansa was hampered by the absence of a single domestic national market. It gradually became apparent that the power of the union was based more on the needs of foreign rather than domestic trade. This bias finally "drowned" it after neighboring countries began to develop capitalist relations more and more actively and actively defend domestic markets from competitors.

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Introduction

2.1 Hanseatic League and Pskov

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

In world history, there are not many examples of voluntary and mutually beneficial alliances concluded between states or any corporations. In addition, the overwhelming majority of them were based on self-interest and greed. And, as a result, they turned out to be very short-lived. Any violation of interests in such an alliance invariably led to its collapse. Such rare examples of long-term and lasting coalitions, where all actions were subordinated to the ideas of cooperation and development, such as the Hanseatic Trade Union, become all the more attractive for understanding, as well as for drawing instructive lessons.

This community of cities has become one of the most important forces in Northern Europe and an equal partner for sovereign states. However, since the interests of the cities that were part of the Hansa were too different, economic cooperation did not always turn into political and military ones. However, the undeniable merit of this union was that it laid the foundations of international trade.

The political relevance of the topic under study lies in the fact that the history of the existence of the Hanseatic League, its experience, mistakes and achievements are very instructive not only for historians, but also for modern politicians. Much of what elevated him and then cast him into oblivion is repeated in the modern history of Europe. Sometimes the countries of the continent, in their striving to create a lasting alliance and thus achieve advantages on the world stage, make the same miscalculation as the Hanseatic merchants did many centuries ago.

The aim of the work is to describe the history of the existence of the most powerful medieval trade union in Europe. Objectives - to consider the reasons for the emergence of the Hanseatic Trade Union, its activities during its heyday (XIII-XVI centuries), as well as the reasons for the collapse.

Chapter 1. The emergence and flowering of the Hanseatic League

The formation of the Hansa, which dates back to 1267, was the response of European merchants to the challenges of the Middle Ages. A fragmented Europe was a highly risky business field. On the trade routes pirates and robbers ruled, and what could be saved from them and brought to the counters was taxed by the princes of the church and appanage rulers. Everyone wanted to profit from the entrepreneurs, and regulated robbery flourished. The rules, brought to the point of absurdity, allowed to take penalties for the "wrong" depth of an earthen pot or the width of a piece of cloth.

Despite all this, German maritime trade had already reached a significant development in those days; already in the 9th century, this trade was conducted with England, the Northern states and with Russia, and it was always carried out on armed merchant ships. About 1000 the Saxon king thelred bestowed considerable privileges on the German merchants in London; his example was subsequently followed by William the Conqueror.

In 1143, the city of Lubeck was founded by the Count of Schaumburg. Subsequently, the Count of Schaumburg ceded the city to Heinrich the Lion, and when the latter was declared disgraced, Lubeck became an imperial city. The power of Lübeck was recognized by all cities in Northern Germany, and a century before the official registration of the Hansa, the merchants of this city had already received trade privileges in many countries.

In 1158 the city of Lübeck, which quickly flourished as a result of the intensified development of trade in the Baltic Sea, founded a German trading company at Visby, on the island of Gotland; This city was located approximately halfway between Trava and Neva, the Sound and the Gulf of Riga, the Vistula and Lake Melar, and due to this position, and also the fact that at that time, due to imperfect navigation, ships avoided long transitions, they began to enter it all ships, and thus it gained great importance.

In 1241, the merchant unions of the cities of Lübeck and Hamburg entered into an agreement to jointly protect the trade route connecting the Baltic Sea with the North. In 1256, the first union of a group of seaside cities was formed - Lubeck, Hamburg, Luneburg, Wismar, Rostock. Finally, a single union of Hanseatic cities - Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne, Gdansk (Danzig), Riga and others (at first the number of cities reached 70) - was formed in 1267. The representation was entrusted to the main city of the union, Lubeck, quite voluntarily, since its burgomasters and senators were considered the most capable of doing business, and at the same time this city took on the associated costs of maintaining warships.

The leaders of the Hansa very skillfully used favorable circumstances to take over trade in the Baltic and North Seas, to make their monopoly out of it, and thus to be able to set prices for goods at their own discretion; in addition, they tried to acquire in the states where it was of interest to them, the greatest possible privileges, such as, for example, the right to freely establish colonies and carry out trade, exemption from taxes on goods, from land taxes, the right to acquire houses and courtyards, with the presentation to them of extraterritoriality and their own jurisdiction. These efforts were mostly successful even before the founding of the union. Discreet, experienced, and politically talented, the union's commercial leaders were adept at exploiting the weaknesses or predicaments of neighboring states; they did not miss the chance to indirectly (by supporting the enemies of this state) or even directly (by privateering or open war) to put these states in a difficult situation, in order to force certain concessions from them. Thus, Liege and Amsterdam, Hanover and Cologne, Göttingen and Kiel, Bremen and Hamburg, Wismar and Berlin, Frankfurt and Stettin (now Szczecin), Danzig (Gdansk) and Konigsberg (Kaliningrad), Memel (Klaipeda) ) and Riga, Pernov (Pärnu) and Yuryev (Dorpat, or Tartu), Stockholm and Narva. In the Slavic cities of Wolin, which is at the mouth of the Oder (Odra) and in the present Polish Pomerania, in Kolberg (Kolobrzeg), in the Latvian Vengspils (Vindava), there were large Hanseatic trading posts that briskly bought up local goods and, to the general benefit, sold imported ones. Hanseatic offices appeared in Bruges, London, Novgorod and Revel (Tallinn).

All Hanseatic cities of the union were divided into three districts:

1) Eastern, Vendian region, to which Lubeck, Hamburg, Rostock, Wismar and the Pomeranian cities belonged - Stralsund, Greifswald, Anklyam, Stetin, Kohlberg, etc.

2) West Frisian-Dutch region, which included Cologne and the Westphalian cities - Zest, Dortmund, Groningen, etc.

3) And finally, the third region, consisted of Visby and cities located in the Baltic provinces, such as Riga and others.

The offices that the Hansa held in different countries were fortified points, and their safety was guaranteed by the supreme power: veche, princes, kings. And yet the cities that were part of the union were distant from each other and often separated by non-union, and often even hostile possessions. True, these cities were for the most part free imperial cities, but, nevertheless, in their decisions they often depended on the rulers of the surrounding country, and these rulers were far from always in favor of the Hansa, and, on the contrary, often belonged to it is unfriendly and even hostile, of course, except for those cases when they needed her help. The independence, wealth and power of the cities, which were the focus of the country's religious, scientific and artistic life, and to which its population gravitated, were a thorn in the eye of these princes.

It was very difficult to keep within the union of the cities, coastal and inland, scattered across the space from the Gulf of Finland to the Scheldt, and from the sea coast to central Germany, since the interests of these cities were very different, and yet the only connection between them could be precisely only common interests; at the disposal of the union there was only one compulsory means - exclusion from it (Verhasung), which entailed the prohibition of all members of the union to have any business with the excluded city and should have led to the termination of all relations with it; however, there was no police authority overseeing this. Complaints and grievances could only be brought to the congresses of the union cities, which were collected from time to time, to which representatives from all cities, whose interests demanded this, were present. In any case, exclusion from the union was a very effective means against port cities; this was, for example, in 1355 with Bremen, which from the very beginning showed a desire for isolation, and which was forced, due to enormous losses, three years later to ask again for admission to the union.

Hansa set out to organize intermediary trade between east, west and north of Europe along the Baltic and North Seas. Trading conditions there were unusually difficult. The prices of goods in general remained rather low, and therefore the incomes of merchants at the beginning of the union's existence were modest. To keep costs to a minimum, the merchants performed the functions of sailors themselves. The merchants themselves and their servants made up the crew of the ship, the captain of which was chosen from among the more experienced travelers. If the ship did not suffer a wreck and arrived safely at its destination, it was possible to start bargaining.

The first general congress of the cities of the Hanseatic League took place in Lubeck in 1367. The elected ganzetag (a kind of parliament of the union) distributed laws in the form of letters that absorb the spirit of the times, reflecting customs and precedents. The highest authority in the Hansa was the General Hanseatic Congress, which considered issues of trade and relations with foreign states. In the intervals between congresses, current affairs were managed by the rat (city council) of Lübeck.

Flexible in responding to the challenges of the time, the Hanseatic people quickly expanded their influence, and soon almost two hundred cities considered themselves members of the union. The growth of the Hansa was facilitated by the equality of native languages ​​and common German, the use of a single monetary system, the inhabitants of the cities of the Hanseatic League had equal rights within the union.

The Hanseatic League was conceived and created by merchants, but this word should not be understood as merchants in our sense of the word, but only large wholesalers; retailers who offered their wares on the streets and who matched the owners of modern retail stores, as well as artisans, could not enroll in merchant guilds.

When a merchant became a Hanseatic, then with the exemption from several local taxes, he received a lot of privileges. In every large city in a Hanseatic settlement, a medieval businessman could get any information he needed: about the actions of competitors, turnover, benefits and restrictions in force in this city. The Hanseatic League created an effective system of lobbying for its interests and even built a network of industrial espionage.

The Hanseaticans promoted a healthy lifestyle, introduced ideas of business ethics, created clubs for the exchange of experience in business operations, and disseminated technologies for the production of goods. They opened schools for aspiring artisans and merchants. This was a real innovation for medieval Europe, which was plunged into chaos. In fact, the Hansa formatted the civilizational prototype of the Europe we know today. The Hanseatic League had neither a constitution, nor its own bureaucratic bureaucracy, nor a general treasury, and the laws on which the community was based were just a collection of letters, customs and precedents changing over time.

All work and behavior of the Hanseatic was strictly regulated - from how to train apprentices and hire a skilled craftsman to production technology, trade ethics and prices themselves. But their self-esteem and measure did not betray them: in the clubs, which abounded in the cities of the Hanseatic League, they often reprimanded those who threw plates on the floor, grabbed a knife, drank a "ruff", played dice. Young people were reproached, "... who drinks too much, breaks glasses, overeats and jumps from barrel to barrel." And to bet - it was also considered "not our way." A contemporary speaks with condemnation of a merchant who pledged ten guilders on a dispute that he would not brush his hair for a year. Whether he won the bet or lost, we will never know.

In addition to strictly regulated rules, a large number of cities in the composition and their free imperial position, the secret of Hanseatic prosperity was the cheapness of mass transportation. To this day, the Elbe-Lübeck Canal, dug by the serfs of the Count of Lauenberg between 1391 and 1398, has been working, however, since then it has been deepened and widened. It allows a much shorter distance between the North Sea and the Baltic. At one time, it replaced the old railroad track from Lubeck to Hamburg, which for the first time made it economically profitable to transport bulk and other bulk cargo from Eastern Europe to Western Europe. So in the Hanseatic era, Eastern European food and raw materials flowed along the canal - Polish grain and flour, Baltic fishermen's herring, Swedish wood and iron, Russian candle wax and furs. And towards them - salt mined near Luneburg, Rhine wine and pottery, piles of woolen and linen fabrics from England and the Netherlands, odorous cod fat from the distant northern islands.

At the zenith of its glory, the XIV-XV centuries, the Hanseatic League, this kind of merchant federal republic, was no weaker than any European monarchy. If necessary, he could use force, declare a trade blockade rebellious. But he still resorted to war on the rarest of occasions. However, when the Danish king Valdemar IV in 1367 attacked the Hanseatic base of Visby and began to threaten all Baltic commerce, the union decided to use weapons.

Gathering in Graiswald, the representatives of the cities decided to turn their merchant schooners into warships. Genuine floating wooden fortresses came out into the sea - tall platforms rose up on the bow and stern, from which it is so convenient to repel the attack of the enemy boarding.

The Hanseaticans lost the first battle, but in the end the fleet of the Hanseatic merchants took Copenhagen from the battle, plundered it, and the king was forced in 1370 to sign the Treaty of Peace in Stralsund, humiliating for him.

Chapter 2. Hanseatic League and Russia

In the XIV-XV centuries. through the mediation of the Hanseatic League, the main trade between Russia and the West was carried out. Wax and furs were exported from Russia - mainly squirrel, less often leather, flax, hemp, silk. The Hanseatic League supplied to Russia salt and fabrics - broadcloth, linen, velvet, satin. Silver, gold, non-ferrous metals, amber, glass, wheat, beer, herring, and weapons were imported in smaller volumes. Hanseatic offices in Russia existed in Pskov and Novgorod the Great.

2.1 Hanseatic League and Pskov

What interested the Hanseatic merchants in Pskov? In Russia, furs were the main export commodity, but Novgorod controlled the fur harvesting areas, and Pskov accounted for only a small portion of the furs sold to the West. And mainly wax was exported from Pskov to Europe. The place of wax in the life of a medieval person was akin to the role that electricity plays in our life. Candles were made from wax - both for lighting living quarters and for worship.

In addition, it was customary among Catholics to sculpt images of diseased body parts from wax. Wax was the most important commodity until the beginning of the 20th century: even Father Fyodor from "The Twelve Chairs" dreamed of a candle factory in Samara. But in Europe, despite the development of beekeeping, wax was lacking, and it was imported from the East - from Lithuania and Russian lands. Here in the XIV-XV centuries. there were still quite a lot of forests and bee-keeping was widespread - the extraction of honey from wild bees. The extracted foundation was melted, the wax was cleaned and sold.

The quality of the wax was different, low-grade wax with sludge was forbidden for the Hanseatic people to buy. The rules of trade were regulated by "antiquity" - customs accepted as the norm. One of these customs was the right of the Hanseatic people to "pick up" wax, ie. chipping off pieces from the waxed wheel to check its quality, and chipped pieces did not go due to the weight of the purchased wax. The size of the pieces of wax that were allowed to "pick up" was not determined precisely, but depended on the "antiquity" and the arbitrariness of the merchants. The wax was sold locally and exported to the Baltics.

Of the imported goods, the Pskovites were primarily interested in salt. The importance of salt in the Middle Ages was determined not only by the fact that it was a food product; salt was one of the raw materials for the tanning industry. Salt was mined on a comparatively large scale in only a few districts, very remote from each other, was expensive and early became the most important product in the exchange of goods. In Russia, salt was not mined enough, including in the Pskov land, so salt occupied one of the first places in the composition of imported goods.

The need for salt supplies forced the Pskov people to fight to change the unfavorable rules of trade. Hanseatic merchants in Russia sold salt not by weight, but in bags. It is clear that this method of trading often led to deception. At the same time, in the neighboring cities of the Hanseatic League, salt was sold by weight. At the beginning of the 15th century, the residents of Novgorod and Pskov reduced their purchases of salt at home and began to travel to Livonia for this product. In response, in 1407 the Germans banned the supply of salt and trade with Novgorod and Pskov. Salt prices soared and Russian merchants backed down, agreeing to the old terms of trade. Pskov bought salt primarily for his own needs, but sometimes served as a staging post for the transit trade of the Hanseatic people with Novgorod, even in wartime. So, in the 1420s, when Novgorod was at war with the Livonian Order, salt from Narva still came to Novgorod through Pskov.

The trade in weapons and non-ferrous metals has always been a stumbling block in the relations of Russian cities with the Hansa and the Livonian Order. Hansa was interested in the arms trade, which brought great profits, and the Order, fearing the growth of the power of the Russian lands, on the contrary, prevented it. But commercial gains often prevailed over defense interests, and, for example, in 1396, Revel merchants, including the head of the city council Gerd Witte, transported weapons to Novgorod and Pskov in herring barrels.

Non-ferrous metals, so necessary in the process of making weapons, were also banned from import into Russia, apparently at the very beginning of the 15th century. In any case, when in 1420 the Pskovites wanted to make a lead roof for the Trinity Cathedral, they could not find a foundry master not only in Pskov, but also in Novgorod. The craftsmen and residents of Dorpat did not give the Pskovites, and only the Moscow Metropolitan sent a foundry to Pskov. Taking advantage of the monopoly on the import of metals into Russia, Hansa never missed an opportunity to cash in on trade. So, in 1518, low-grade silver was brought to Pskov, but six years later it was sent back to Dorpat.

Alcoholic beverages constituted a significant part of trade flows in the Middle Ages. But if wines were expensive and were imported to Russia in small quantities, then alcoholic beverages such as honey and beer were imported very intensively. Moreover, in Pskov, as well as in the Novgorod lands, they made their own honey, part of which was also exported for sale to Dorpat and other cities. The active trade in alcohol is evidenced by the mention of 13 and a half barrels of beer and 4 barrels of honey taken by Pskov merchants from the property of a murdered German in Pskov in the 1460s. Only once in the history of Pskov-Hanseatic relations trade in "tavern", ie. any alcohol was prohibited: under the agreement of 1474, Pskov and Dorpat undertook not to import beer and honey for sale within each other's territories. But after 30 years, in the agreement of 1503, this prohibition was absent. Apparently, the contractual norm, which was disadvantageous to both parties, died out by itself.

During the war between Pskov and the Livonian Order in 1406-1409. trade relations with the Hansa were interrupted, but soon resumed. The initiative in restoring the Pskov-Hanseatic relations belonged to Dorpat, who was the first to conclude an agreement with Pskov on the safety of travel and trade (1411). Close trade relations also contributed to the conclusion of an alliance agreement between Pskov and the Order in 1417.

The most detailed mutual terms of trade between the Pskov and Dorpat merchants were stipulated in the agreement of 1474. Merchants of both sides were subject to guarantees of a "clean path", i.e. free trade both in cities that have entered into an agreement, and travel with goods to other points. Under the mutual agreement, customs duties were abolished: it was decided to liquidate the "decks" (barriers), and not to take the "hotel" (duties). The contract was extremely beneficial for Pskov, because it provided Pskov merchants with the right to retail and guest trade in Dorpat and other cities that belonged to the Dorpat bishop. Now the people of Pskov could trade in Dorpat not only with its inhabitants, but also with the inhabitants of Riga, Revels, and "with every guest", which meant not only Hanseatic merchants. Merchants who were in a foreign land were guaranteed equal court with the subjects of the country where the merchant was.

There were no Russian merchant households in the Baltic cities, and the Orthodox churches played the role of uniting centers for the Russian merchants in Livonia. There were two Russian churches in Dorpat - St. Nicholas and St. George, which belonged to Novgorod and Pskov merchants. At the churches there were premises where priests lived and goods were stored. Festivities and meetings took place here. The houses of German burghers, located around Orthodox churches, have long been rented by Russian merchants, so the urban area of ​​Dorpat in the vicinity of the churches began to be called the Russian End, by analogy with the names of urban areas in Novgorod and Pskov.

In Pskov, German merchants were accommodated on the so-called "German bank" in the rented yards of Russian merchants. "German Coast" is the coastal strip of Zapskovye, located on the opposite bank of the Pskova River to the Kremlin. Unlike Pskov, there has long been a German trading post in Novgorod the Great - the courtyard of St. Peter. The Hanseatic court in Novgorod was ruled by elected officials - the Aldermans - with full autonomy. The German court had its own charter - skru, which regulated the internal life of the German court, as well as the terms of trade between the Germans and the Russians. The courtyard on the "German coast" operated until the start of the Livonian War, and in 1562 it was destroyed by fire. The German court in Pskov was restored only after the end of the Livonian War, in the 1580s. across the Velikaya river, opposite the Kremlin. In the same place, in 1588, a courtyard of the main city of the Hansa, Lubeck, was established. But this is already another era when the Hansa ceded dominance in the Baltic to Sweden.

2.2 Hanseatic League and Novgorod

The Hanseatic office in Novgorod consisted of the Gothic and German courts. The management of the office was carried out directly by the Hanseatic cities: first, Visby and Lubeck, later they were joined by the Livonian cities of Riga, Dorpat, Revel. The organization of the Hanseatic office in Veliky Novgorod, the organization of everyday life and trade in the courtyards, relations with the Novgorodians were strictly regulated by special decrees recorded in the skru, which was a kind of charter of the office. With the change in the terms of trade, the political situation, trade relations between Veliky Novgorod and its Western partners, the spark changed.

The main place of trade was the German Court, where Novgorod merchants came to negotiate deals and pick up the goods. Hanseatic merchants also purchased Novgorod goods directly from the estates of their Russian partners. Trade was wholesale and exchange in nature. Fabrics were sold in sets, sealed with special seals, salt - in bags, honey, wine, herring, non-ferrous metals - in barrels. Even small piece goods were sold in large quantities: gloves, threads, needles - dozens, hundreds, thousands of pieces. Russian goods were also bought in bulk: wax - in circles, fur - in hundreds of skins. The exchange character of trade was also strictly observed, i.e. cash goods for cash goods. Trade on credit was strictly prohibited under the threat of confiscation of goods acquired illegally. Only merchants of Hanseatic cities, always striving for monopoly trade, had the right to come to Veliky Novgorod and live in the courtyards. Hidden in all editions, and in the correspondence of cities, the prohibition was persistently repeated to enter into a company with non-Hanseatic people (especially with the main competitors of the Hansa - the Dutch and Flemings) and to bring their goods to Veliky Novgorod. The total number of merchants who were simultaneously in both courts reached 150-200 people in the most favorable times. However, due to the decline of the Novgorod-Hanseatic trade in the 15th century, the number of merchants who came to Veliky Novgorod significantly decreased. A list of merchants, compiled at the closure of the office in 1494, has survived, which included 49 merchants from 18 cities in Germany and Livonia. At first, with a lack of space in the courtyards, Hanseatic merchants could stop to live in Novgorod estates, which was recorded during archaeological excavations of one of these estates in the area adjacent to the German courtyard. Here, in the layers of the XIV-XV centuries. Western European household items were found, confirming the stay of the Hanseatic merchants on the estate.

Hanseatic merchants who came to Veliky Novgorod from different cities represented a single German (Hanseatic) merchant class, which in all actions was guided by the articles of the spark and general decrees and was headed by elders selected from among them. The elders were the chief judges in the courtyards, they strictly monitored the execution of all decisions in secret, imposed fines and other types of punishment, settled all conflicts between the Hanseatic merchants. The duties of the elders also included negotiating with the Russians, checking goods, receiving taxes from merchants, appointing inspectors, i.e. controllers of various goods. Along with the elders of the courtyards, the elders of the church of St. Peter, whose main responsibility was to preserve the rights of the church, all the privileges and messages of the cities. Heads of the church of St. Peter took an oath from the merchants to abide by all concealed regulations. In addition, the elders of the living quarters, the vogts, were elected. In the office, besides the administrative ones, there were other officials. The main figure among them was the priest, who conducted services, and also wrote official and private letters. In the office there was also a translator, livts of silver, inspectors (that is, inspectors) of cloth, wax and wine; tailor, baker, brewer. Until the XV century. the beer was brewed in turn by the merchants themselves. The main legislative body of the office was the general meeting of merchants under the chairmanship of the elders of the court and the church of St. Peter or the manager who replaced them. The meeting discussed all the most important matters of the office. Here letters of cities, messages of ambassadors were read, a trial in commercial and criminal cases took place. Some important decisions were hung out for public inspection, and the names of Novgorod merchants with whom it was forbidden to trade were also hung out.

The history of the Hanseatic office in Veliky Novgorod testifies to the fact that it was an isolated, closed settlement of German merchants, in contrast to the Hanseatic offices in Bruges and London. According to the researchers, the Novgorod office is a unique phenomenon in the Hanseatic trade. In a sense, it was a model for other Hansa offices in organizing settlements closed in all respects (ecclesiastical, legal, economic and social) within a foreign city. However, this ideal was unattainable and such measures of isolation were only partially applied in the Hanseatic offices in London and Bruges.

The history of Novgorod-Hanseatic relations is replete with trade conflicts, bans on trade, frequent clashes between foreign merchants and residents of the city. Most often, conflicts arose due to non-compliance by one or another party with the rules of trade. One of the basic rules was the following: if one of the merchants violated the rules of trade, only the guilty person should have sued. Nevertheless, judging by the sources, such violations entailed the arrest of all Novgorod merchants in the Hanseatic cities and the arrest of German merchants in Veliky Novgorod. The robbery of Novgorodians somewhere in the Baltic Sea or in Livonia entailed the detention of all German merchants in Veliky Novgorod. Mutual arrests of merchants and goods became especially frequent in the second half of the XIV century, which ended in the trade war of 1385-1391, after which the Peace of Niburov was concluded in 1392. However, peaceful relations did not last long, several years later, mutual claims to the quality of goods and accusations of non-compliance with trade rules began again. Wars and political conflicts between Veliky Novgorod and its opponents (most often the Livonian Order and Sweden) were a frequent cause of breakdowns in trade relations. Although the trade agreements stipulated that during the war merchants were guaranteed a "clean path", that is, free movement along trade routes, however, in practice, every time a war broke out, a trade blockade was declared. Sometimes conflicts arose directly between the residents of Veliky Novgorod and foreign merchants, which often led to the suspension of trade. During periods of especially acute conflicts, Hanseatic merchants closed the church and courtyards, took their property, all valuables, treasury and office archives and left Veliky Novgorod. They transferred the keys from the courtyards to the archbishop of Veliky Novgorod and the archimandrite of the Yuryev Monastery as the highest church hierarchs of Veliky Novgorod, i.e. especially trusted persons. The Novgorodians, in turn, sought to detain the Hanseaticans in the city until their demands were satisfied. The end in Novgorod-Hanseatic relations was set by Ivan III in 1494, when the Hanseatic office in Veliky Novgorod was closed by his decree, 49 Hanseatic merchants were arrested, and their goods worth 96 thousand marks were confiscated and sent to Moscow.

A protracted twenty-year conflict between the Russian state and the Hansa began. In Revel and Riga, Novgorod merchants with goods who were there were arrested. However, Dorpat, who maintained intensive trade relations with Pskov and had a special agreement with him on free trade, refused to break off relations with Russian cities. Narva, which was not a member of the Hanseatic League and therefore was not obliged to comply with the decisions of its congresses, continued to trade with Russia. In a word, the united front of the Hansa and Livonia against Russia never took shape.

Both the Hansa and Russia have repeatedly tried to resolve the conflict. So, in February 1498 the Russian-Hanseatic negotiations took place in Narva. The Russian side linked the restoration of normal relations with a number of demands; in fact, the government of Ivan III set preconditions. Russia demanded, first, an improvement in the position of the Russian churches and the inhabitants of the Russian ends in the Baltic cities; in the claims made by the Russian delegation, the facts of the prohibition of Russians to consecrate churches and live in houses at the church were cited.

The negotiations ended in vain, and after their end Russia dealt another blow to the Hansa: the import of salt into Russian cities was prohibited. Pskov merchants in vain sought from the Grand Duke to allow them to import salt into the Russian lands, but their efforts were not crowned with success.

20 years later, in 1514, the Hanseatic office was reopened in Veliky Novgorod, but this was already another page in the history of Veliky Novgorod and in the history of the Hansa.

Chapter 3. Decline of the Hanseatic League

Despite all her commercial and military successes, Hansa, conservative to the core, gradually created difficulties for herself. Its rules required that the inheritance be divided among numerous children, and this prevented the accumulation of capital in the same hands, without which the "business" could not expand. Constantly not admitting guild handicrafts to power, clumsy senior merchants kept the lower classes silent for a bloody revolt, especially dangerous within their own city walls. The eternal striving for monopoly aroused indignation in other countries where national sentiment was growing. Perhaps most importantly, the Hanseatic people lacked the support of the central government in Germany itself.

At the beginning of the 15th century, the Hanseatic League began to lose its strength. The main Dutch harbors, taking advantage of their position closer to the ocean, preferred to trade at their own expense. A new war between the Hansa and Denmark in 1427-1435, during which these cities remained neutral, brought them enormous benefits and thereby damaged the Hansa, which, however, retained everything it had owned until then. The collapse of the alliance was expressed, however, already in the fact that a few years before the conclusion of a common peace, Rostock and Stralsund concluded their separate peace with Denmark.

Also of great importance was the sad fact that, starting in 1425, the annual movement of fish to the Baltic Sea ceased. She headed to the southern part of the North Sea, which contributed to the prosperity of the Netherlands, as there was a strong need for a lean product around the world, especially in the south.

Hansa's politics also lost some of its original foresight and vigor; to this was added also inappropriate frugality in relation to the fleet, which was kept in insufficient numbers. The Hansa, without any opposition, looked at the unification in the same hands of power over the three Northern Kingdoms, which were also joined by the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein, and allowed the formation of such a force that had never existed in the north. In 1468, Edward IV, King of England, took away all its privileges from the Hansa and left them only outside the city of Cologne, which was subsequently expelled from the Hansa. In the ensuing marque war, the Hansa suffered heavy losses, despite the fact that England did not have a navy at that time.

The Hansa was powerless only against one state - Russia, since at that time she did not come into contact with the sea at all; therefore, it was a strong blow for the Hansa when the Russian tsar in 1494 unexpectedly ordered the closure of the Hanseatic offices in Novgorod. Under such exceptional circumstances, Hansa turned to the emperor for help, but the latter retained his friendly relations with the Russians; this is what the attitude of the head of the empire towards the Hanseatic cities was like in those days! A similar attitude manifested itself a little later, when King Johannes of Denmark procured an order from the emperor to expel all Swedes, which broke all trade relations between the Hansa and Sweden.

But nevertheless, the forces of the nobility and the clergy were broken, a fief and bureaucratic state arose, as a result of which the royal power increased and even became unlimited. Sea trade has developed greatly and has recently spread to the East and West Indies. Its influence on the state economy, as well as the significance of import duties, became increasingly clear; the kings no longer wanted to allow all the trade of their country to be in the hands of others, and, moreover, in the hands of a foreign power, which excluded any possibility of competition. They did not want to submit to the prohibition to increase import duties on their borders any longer and did not even want to allow any restrictions in this respect. At the same time, the privileges granted to Hansa are sometimes very extensive, such as extraterritoriality, the right of asylum in backyards, their own jurisdiction, and so on. made you feel more and more.

The hostile attitude towards the actions of the Hansa was constantly growing, both among foreign and German princes. Of course, they had the opportunity to create customs outposts against port cities, but then they were completely cut off from sea communications. To endure these severe restrictions, as well as the independence of the rich free cities lying in their possessions, became increasingly unbearable as their views on financial issues were formed and their own power and greatness of these princes grew. The days of monopolies in sea trade were over, but the leaders of the Hansa did not understand the signs of new times and held fast to the goals and means that they inherited from their predecessors.

In the meantime, the shipping conditions have also changed; the interests of the port cities scattered along the coast, for more than two thousand kilometers, diverged more and more, with the private interests of each individual city becoming more and more dominant. As a result, the Flemish and Dutch cities had previously separated from the Hansa, then Cologne was excluded from it, and the connection between the rest of the cities was increasingly weakened. Finally, Lubeck was left almost alone with the Wenden cities and the cities of Western Pomerania.

In 1520 Charles V, who was already the Spanish king at that time, was elected German emperor. When divided with his brother Ferdinand, he retained the Netherlands, to which he also annexed West Friesland and Utrecht; as a result, Germany lost its rich coastline with the mouths of the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt. This, of course, was very beneficial for the Dutch maritime trade. At the same time, Christian II, King of Denmark, who became Charles V's son-in-law and harbored a keen hatred for the Hanse, began to patronize the Dutch trade in the Baltic Sea. This gave the Hansa a reason, despite the fact that her influence had dropped significantly, once again decisively intervene in the fate of the Northern Kingdoms.

In 1519, Gustav Vasa fled from Christian II to Lubeck, who not only refused to hand him over, but even supported him and helped him to cross to Sweden; Christian II subjugated Sweden, but aroused the strongest hatred against himself in the country as a result of the massacre he organized in Stockholm, and when Gustav Vasa raised an uprising, the Hansa openly began to support him. The Hanseatic fleet devastated Bornholm, burned Helsingor, threatened Copenhagen and helped during the siege of Stockholm. On June 21, 1523, the Danish commandant of the city presented the keys to the city to the Hanseatic admiral, who in turn handed them over to Gustav Vasa, who had already become Gustav I. Gustav as a reward for his assistance. gave Hansa significant privileges.

Christian II a few years later, with the help of Holland, made an attempt to re-conquer Norway. He landed in Norway and quickly achieved significant success; Denmark hesitated, but the Hansa immediately sent a fleet against him, which by energetic actions managed to force Christian to surrender, and, however, he surrendered not to Hansa, but to his uncle Frederick I, who put him in the Sonderburg castle, where he kept him imprisoned for 28 years, until his death in 1559. Thus, the Hanseatic fleet helped Gustav Vasa to ascend the Swedish throne and brought him into the capital, assisted in the overthrow of Christian II and the accession to the throne of Frederick I, then he also overthrew Christian II a second time and helped to render him harmless. These were undoubtedly major deeds, but this was already the last outbreak of Hanseatic sea power.

Even before this last campaign against Christian II, unrest broke out in Lübeck in 1500 in order to overthrow the patrician city government; both burgomasters fled, and the leader of the movement, Jurgen Wullenweber, became the head of the city, and at the same time took over the leadership of the Hansa. All his efforts, after he had achieved a leadership role in a revolutionary way, were aimed solely at restoring Lubeck's maritime domination and, by eliminating other peoples, especially Holland, to secure Lubeck's monopoly of trade in the Baltic Sea. Protestantism and democracy were to be the means to achieve this goal.

In the meantime, the former mayors of Lübeck secured an imperial chamber judgment that threatened Lübeck democratic rule with expulsion from the empire; this was enough to frighten the Lübeckers so much that they decided to overthrow Wullenweber and restore the old city government. This proves how fragile the foundation on which Wullenweber built his brief reign was.

The importance of Lübeck fell so much that after Gustav I without ceremony destroyed all the privileges of the Hansa, Christian III, the king of Denmark, for his part also stopped paying any attention to these privileges.

Beginning in 1563, Lübeck, in alliance with Denmark, again waged a seven-year war against Sweden, which had recently seized the Hanseatic merchant fleet, in which (which is very significant for the then state of affairs) even Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund remained neutral.

However, Sweden was so weakened by the persistent Allied offensive and internal turmoil that it put the sea in their power. The new king Johann concluded a rather profitable peace with Lubeck on December 13, 1570 in Stetin, according to which there was no longer any talk of a trade monopoly and duty-free trade; the military remuneration stipulated by the peace treaty was not paid. When Johann felt that his position on the throne was sufficiently strengthened, he declared himself "master of the Baltic Sea" and the next year he forbade Hansa to trade with Russia. At the same time, he organized a marque war against the Hansa, and, however, out of respect for Spain, did not touch the Dutch ships. The Hansa did not have a sufficiently strong fleet to successfully oppose it, its trade suffered huge losses, while the Netherlands grew rich.

Shortly before this, Hansa once again had an opportunity for a major political speech. In 1657, an uprising broke out in the Netherlands against Philip II, which, after 40 years of struggle, finally freed them from the Spanish yoke. The rebels begged Hansa for help, and the latter thus presented an opportunity to return the German people and German soil to Germany again, but Hansa missed this opportunity, refusing the requested help.

In view of this, the Dutch soon banned the Hansa from sailing to Spain; the British also took up a hostile position, and in 1589 captured a fleet of 60 merchant ships in the Tagus River, which brought the Spaniards, among other goods and military supplies. When the British were expelled from the German Empire in 1597, England responded in kind, and the Hansa was forced to clear the "Dyeing Yard", which for 600 years was the focus of German trade with England.

At the beginning of the 17th century, Lubeck again made several attempts to establish relations with Russia and Spain, but without significant results, and the 30-year war finally destroyed the remnants of German domination at sea and all German shipping.

The peculiarities of the Hanseatic League, which had neither a strong internal organization, nor a definite and permanent supreme control, did not give this union the opportunity to create significant combat forces at sea. Neither the union, nor individual cities had a permanent fleet, since even the "frede-koggi", which sometimes were kept in service for a long time, were intended exclusively for the marine police surveillance.

Obviously, as a consequence, it was necessary in every war to reassemble military forces every time. Accordingly, the very conduct of the war was limited to actions on the enemy coast, and these actions were limited to unrelated expeditions, attacks and indemnities; there is no need to talk about planned, scientifically grounded actions at sea, about a real naval war, and there was no need for this, since the opponents almost never had real navies.

In addition, the Hanseatic League, and even the individual cities of the union, had at their disposal other means by which they could prescribe their will to the enemy without resorting to weapons. The Hansa dominated all trade to such an extent, especially in the Baltic Sea, where for many years it was indisputably the first trading power, that it was often enough for it to prohibit trade relations (a kind of trade blockade) with those who were hostile to it. in order to thereby lead opponents to obedience. The monopoly of sea trade, which the Hansa enjoyed for centuries on the shores of the Baltic and North Seas, was carried out by her with merciless severity, and she did not need a real navy for this.

However, circumstances began to develop differently, when individual states began to gain strength and the independent power of the princes began to gradually establish. The members of the Hansa did not understand that in accordance with the changed conditions and the union, it was necessary to change their organization, and even in peacetime to prepare for war; they made the same mistake as their

Trade monopolies, duty-free trade and other privileges were the subject of the Hansa's everlasting claims and the basis of its prosperity; all this boiled down to their own material benefits and the exploitation of others, and could not continue with the correct state structure. From the very first steps, the Hansa acted oppressively, if not on the governments of the states in which it operated, then on their merchants, fitters and sailors. She could only hold her position by force, and precisely by sea power.

The leaders of the Hansa used with great skill both its sea power and other means at its disposal, including money, and knew how to benefit from the information acquired through their agents about foreign states and about the people who had influence in them. ... They cleverly took advantage of the constant disputes over succession to the throne and other internal disagreements, as well as numerous wars between individual states, and even tried to initiate and encourage such cases themselves. In general, it all came down to a commercial calculation, while they did not show much scrupulousness in the means and did not pursue any more lofty state tasks. Therefore, the entire union, in addition to a common national feeling, was kept only by the consciousness of common benefits, and while these benefits were really general, the union represented a major force. With the change in conditions, as the sea trade grew, and the states, both their own and foreign, began to grow stronger - the interests of individual members of the union began to diverge, with private interests gaining predominance; the members of the union farthest from the center either fell away or were excluded from it, the unanimity in the union was broken, and the members who remained loyal to it no longer had sufficient strength to fight the strengthened foreign states.

In order to prolong its existence, the new, smaller union should have based its activities on free trade and navigation, but for this the coastal cities needed free communications with the inland country and strong security.

In addition to political events that somehow influenced the collapse of the Hanseatic League, there were also events that did not depend on anyone: in 1530, spread by fleas, and there was no shortage of them, the "black death" - a plague - devastated one German city after another. A quarter of the entire population died from her breath. In the 15th century, the herring catch in the Baltic declined sharply. The large harbor in Bruges was clouded with silt, so that the city was cut off from the sea.

Last but not least, with the discovery, exploration and settlement of America, trade routes began to shift westward into the Atlantic Ocean, where the Hanseatic peoples never took root. The opening of sea routes to India led to about the same. The last congress of the union took place in 1669, after which the Hanseatic trade union collapsed completely.

Conclusion

What do such cities as London, Bruges and Novgorod, Lubeck and Bergen, Braunschweig and Riga have in common? All of them, as well as 200 other cities, were part of the Hanseatic Trade Union, the history of which was considered in the work. This alliance enjoyed such enormous economic and political influence that no other German state existed before 1871. And in terms of military power, the Hansa surpassed many of the kingdoms of that time.

The alliance of German cities that made up the Hansa fell apart after 270 years of brilliant existence, during which it enthroned and overthrew kings, and played a leading role throughout northern Europe. It fell apart because during this long period the conditions of state life on which this union was based have radically changed.

German cities, including those that were part of the Hanseatic League, were the only representatives of the idea of ​​further national development of the German people, and partly implemented this idea. These cities, almost alone, personified German power and influence in the eyes of foreigners, so that the history of urban unions is, generally speaking, a bright page in German history.

Bibliography

1. World history / Under the editorship of G.B. Polyaka, A.N. Markova, M-, 1997

2. History of wars at sea. Shtenzel A. - M .: Izografus, EKSMO-Press. 2002.

3. History of world civilizations / Under the editorship of V.I. Injection. -M, 1996