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Hanseatic League, Ganza, also Hansea(it. Deutsche Hanse or Düdesche Hanse , Old-German Hansa - literally "group", "union", lat. Hansa Teutonica) - a political and economic union that united almost 300 trading cities of northwestern Europe from the middle of the XII to the middle of the XVII centuries. The date of occurrence of the Hanseatica cannot be precisely determined, since it is not based on a specific document. The Hanseatic League developed gradually as trade expanded along the shores of the Baltic and North Seas.

The reason for the formation of the Hanseatic League was the increase in the population of the territories north of the Elbe as a result of migration, the emergence of new cities and independent communes, and an increase in the resulting demand for goods and the growth of trade.

Hansea began to form from the 12th century as a union of merchants, then as a union of merchant guilds and towards the end of the 13th century as a union of cities.

The Hanseatic League included cities with autonomous city government (“city council”, town hall) and their own laws.

To develop general rules and the laws of the Hanseatic League, representatives of the cities regularly gathered at conventions in Lübeck. Hanseatic merchants and companies enjoyed certain rights and privileges.

In not Hanseatic cities x there were representative offices of the Hanseatic - office. Such foreign offices of the Hanseatic were located in Bergen, London and Bruges. At the easternmost end of the Hanseatic trading system, an office was founded in Novgorod (Peterhof), where European goods (wine, fabrics) were sold and hemp, wax, honey, timber, skins and furs were purchased. In 1494, by order of the Grand Duke Ivan III, this office was abolished, all of its buildings (including the stone church of St. Peter the Apostle) were completely destroyed.

History

The growth of trade, raids and piracy in the Baltic have happened before (see Vikings) - for example, sailors from the island of Gotland entered the rivers and ascended to Novgorod - but the scale of international economic ties in the Baltic Sea remained insignificant until the rise of the Hansa.

German cities quickly achieved a dominant position in trade in the Baltic Sea over the next century, and Lubeck became the center of all maritime trade that linked the countries around the Baltic and North Seas.

Base

Before the Hansa, Visby was the main center of trade in the Baltic. For 100 years, German ships sailed to Novgorod under the Gotland flag. Merchants from Visby founded an office in Novgorod. The cities of Danzig (Gdansk), Elblag, Torun, Revel, Riga and Dorpat lived according to the Lubeck law. For local residents and commercial guests, this meant that their legal protection issues came under the jurisdiction of Lubeck as the final appeal instance. The Hanseatic communities worked to obtain special trading privileges for their members. For example, merchants from the Hanseatic City of Cologne were able to convince King Henry II of England to grant them (in 1157) special trading privileges and market rights who exempted them from all London duties and allowed them to trade at fairs throughout England. Lübeck, "Queen of the Hansa" where merchants transported goods between the North and Baltic Seas, received the status of an Imperial Free City in 1227, and is the only city with such a status east of the Elbe.

Lübeck, having access to fishing grounds in the Baltic and North Seas, in 1242 formed an alliance with Hamburg, with its access to the salt trade routes from Luneburg. The allied cities gained control over most of the salted fish trade, especially at the Skåne fair; by decision of the congress in 1261, Cologne joined them. In 1266, the English king Henry III granted the Lubeck and Hamburg Hansa the right to trade in England, and in 1282 the Hansa of Cologne joined them, forming the most powerful Hanseatic colony in London. The reasons for this cooperation were the feudal fragmentation in the then Germany and the inability of the authorities to ensure the safety of trade. Over the next 50 years, the Hansa itself established written relations of confederation and cooperation on the eastern and western trade routes. In 1356, a general congress was held in Lubeck (German. Hansetag), on which the founding documents were adopted and the management structure of the Hansa was formed.

The strengthening of the Hansa was facilitated by the adoption in 1299 of an agreement, according to which the representatives of the port cities of the union - 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." This stimulated the influx of new members of the Hansa, whose number had increased to 80 by 1367.

Extension

Lübeck's location in the Baltic provided access to trade with Russia and Scandinavia, creating direct competition with the Scandinavians, who previously controlled most of the Baltic trade routes. The agreement with the Hanseatic city of Visby put an end to competition: under this agreement, the Lubeck merchants also received access to inland Russian port Novgorod (the center of the Novgorod Republic), where they built a trading post or office .

Hansa was a decentralized organization. Conventions of the Hanseatic Cities ( Hansetag) met from time to time in Lubeck, beginning in 1356, but many cities refused to send representatives and decisions of the Congresses did not oblige individual cities to anything. Over time, the network of cities has grown to volatile list from 70 to 170 cities.

The union was able to establish additional offices in Bruges (in Flanders, now in Belgium), in Bergen (Norway) and in London (England). These trading posts became significant enclaves. The London office, founded in 1320, stood west of London Bridge near Upper Thames Street. It has grown considerably to become, over time, a walled community with its own warehouses, scale house, church, offices and residential buildings, reflecting the importance and scale of its activities. This trading post was called Steel yard(eng. Steelyard, it. der Stahlhof), the first mention under this name was in 1422.

Cities formerly members of the Hansa

More than 200 cities were members of the Hansa at different times

Cities that traded with the Hansa

The largest offices were located in Bruges, Bergen, London and Novgorod.

Every year in one of the cities of New Hansa, the international festival "Hanseatic Days of the New Time" is held.

Currently, the German cities of Bremen, Hamburg, Lübeck, Greifswald, Rostock, Stralsund, Wismar, Anklam, Demmin, Salzwedel retain the title in their official names " Hanseatic ..."(For example, Hamburg is fully called:" Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg "- German. Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, Bremen - “the Hanseatic city of Bremen - German. Hansestadt Bremen" etc.). Accordingly, state car license plates in these cities begin with an "additional" Latin letter H… - HB(ie "Hansestadt Bremen"), HH("Hansestadt Hamburg"), HL(Lubeck), HGW(Greifswald), HRO(Sprout), HST(Stralsund), HWI(Wismar).

see also

Bibliography

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Links

• Hansa / Khoroshkevich A. L. // Great Soviet Encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov... - 3rd ed. - M. : Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
• Dossier Deutsche Welle
• A subsection in the Annales library.
• Forsten G.V.// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

Hansa Vendian and Pomeranian districts Saxony, Thuringia, Brandenburg Poland, Prussia, Livonia, Sweden Rhine, Westphalia, Netherlands The main offices Secondary offices

Ancient world Middle Ages New time Hypothetical

Excerpt from Hansa

- The count has not left, he is here, and there will be orders about you, - said the police master. - Come on! He said to the coachman. The crowd stopped, crowding around those who heard what the authorities had said, and looking at the droshky driving away.
At that moment the police chief looked around in dismay, said something to the coachman, and his horses rode faster.
- Cheating, guys! Lead to yourself! - shouted the voice of a tall fellow. - Don't let it go, guys! Let him submit a report! Here you go! Shouted the voices, and the people ran after the droshky at a run.
The crowd behind the police chief with a noisy talk went to the Lubyanka.
- Well, gentlemen and the merchants have left, and we are lost for that? Well, we are dogs, eh! - was heard more often in the crowd.

On the evening of September 1, after his meeting with Kutuzov, Count Rostopchin, upset and offended that he was not invited to the military council, that Kutuzov did not pay any attention to his proposal to take part in the defense of the capital, and surprised by the new look that opened to him in the camp , in which the question of the tranquility of the capital and its patriotic mood turned out to be not only secondary, but completely unnecessary and insignificant, - upset, offended and surprised by all this, Count Rostopchin returned to Moscow. After supper, the count, without undressing, lay down on a canapé and in the first hour was awakened by a courier who brought him a letter from Kutuzov. The letter said that since the troops were retreating to the Ryazan road beyond Moscow, it would not please the count to send police officials to lead the troops through the city. This news was not news for Rostopchin. Not only from yesterday's meeting with Kutuzov on Poklonnaya Gora, but also from the battle of Borodino itself, when all the generals who came to Moscow unanimously said that no more battles could be fought, and when, with the count's permission, every night they were taking out state property and residents up to half they left, - Count Rostopchin knew that Moscow would be abandoned; but nevertheless this news, communicated in the form of a simple note with an order from Kutuzov and received at night, during his first dream, surprised and irritated the count.
Subsequently, explaining his activities during this time, Count Rostopchin wrote several times in his notes that he then had two important goals: De maintenir la tranquillite a Moscou et d "en faire partir les habitants. of its inhabitants.] If we admit this twofold goal, every action of Rostopchin turns out to be irreproachable. Count Rostopchin's explanation answers, in order to maintain peace in the capital. Why were piles of unnecessary papers and Leppich's ball and other items taken out from public places? - In order to leave the city empty, Count Rostopchin's explanation answers. the peace of the people, and every action becomes justified.
All the horrors of terror were based only on concern for the peace of the people.
What was the basis of Count Rostopchin's fear of public peace in Moscow in 1812? What reason was there for suggesting a tendency towards resentment in the city? The inhabitants were leaving, the troops, retreating, filled Moscow. Why did the people have to rebel as a result?
Not only in Moscow, but throughout Russia, when the enemy entered, nothing similar to indignation occurred. On September 1, 2, more than ten thousand people remained in Moscow, and, except for the crowd that had gathered in the courtyard of the commander-in-chief and attracted by himself, there was nothing. Obviously, it was even less necessary to expect unrest among the people, if after the Battle of Borodino, when the abandonment of Moscow became obvious, or, at least, probably, if then, instead of agitating the people by distributing weapons and posters, Rostopchin took measures to the export of all relics, gunpowder, charges and money, and would directly announce to the people that the city is being abandoned.
Rostopchin, an ardent, sanguine person who always moved in the highest circles of the administration, although in patriotic feeling, did not have the slightest idea about the people he thought to rule. From the very beginning of the enemy's entry into Smolensk, Rostopchin in his imagination formed for himself the role of the leader of the national sentiment - the heart of Russia. It not only seemed to him (as it seems to every administrator) that he was in control of the external actions of the inhabitants of Moscow, but it seemed to him that he controlled their mood through his appeals and posters, written in that derogatory language that in his midst despises the people and which he does not understands when he hears it from above. Rostopchin liked the beautiful role of the leader of the popular sentiment so much, he got so used to it that the need to get out of this role, the need to leave Moscow without any heroic effect caught him by surprise, and he suddenly lost from under his feet the ground on which he was standing, he decidedly did not know what should he do. Although he knew, he did not believe with all his soul until the last minute in the abandonment of Moscow and did nothing for this purpose. Residents left against his wishes. If the offices were taken out, it was only at the request of officials, with whom the count reluctantly agreed. He himself was occupied only with the role that he had done for himself. As is often the case with people gifted with an ardent imagination, he had known for a long time that Moscow would be abandoned, but he knew only by reasoning, but did not believe in it with all his heart, did not transfer his imagination to this new situation.
All his activities, diligent and energetic (how useful it was and reflected on the people is another question), all his activities were aimed only at arousing in the inhabitants the feeling that he himself experienced - patriotic hatred of the French and confidence in itself.
But when the event took on its real, historical proportions, when it turned out to be insufficient only to express in words the hatred of the French, when it was impossible even to express this hatred in a battle, when self-confidence turned out to be useless in relation to one issue of Moscow, when the entire population, as one person abandoning their property, flowed out of Moscow, showing with this negative action the full strength of their popular feeling - then the role chosen by Rostopchin suddenly turned out to be meaningless. He suddenly felt lonely, weak and funny, with no ground under his feet.
Having received, awakened from sleep, a cold and imperative note from Kutuzov, Rostopchin felt the more irritated, the more he felt guilty. Everything that was entrusted to him remained in Moscow, everything that was official that he had to take out. It was not possible to take everything out.
“Who is to blame for this, who allowed this to happen? He thought. “Of course not me. I had everything ready, I held Moscow like that! And this is what they have brought the matter to! Scoundrels, traitors! " - he thought, not properly defining who these scoundrels and traitors were, but feeling the need to hate these someone traitors who were to blame for the false and ridiculous situation in which he was.
All that night, Count Rostopchin gave orders, for which people came to him from all sides of Moscow. Those close to him had never seen the count so gloomy and irritated.
“Your Excellency, they came from the patrimonial department, from the director for orders… From the consistory, from the Senate, from the university, from the orphanage, the vicar sent… asks… About the fire brigade, what do you want? From the prison, the superintendent ... from the yellow house, the superintendent ... "- all night, without ceasing, they reported to the count.
The count gave short and angry answers to all these questions, showing that his orders were no longer needed, that all the work carefully prepared by him had now been ruined by someone, and that this someone would bear full responsibility for everything that would happen now.
“Well, tell this fool,” he answered in response to a request from the patrimonial department, “so that he stayed guarding his papers. What are you asking nonsense about the fire brigade? There are horses - let them go to Vladimir. Do not leave the French.
- Your Excellency, the overseer from the insane asylum has arrived, as you order?
- How do I order? Let everyone go, that's all ... And let the crazy people out in the city. When we have crazy armies in command, that's what God ordered.
When asked about the convicts who were sitting in the pit, the count angrily shouted at the inspector:
- Well, give you two battalions of the convoy, which is not there? Let them go, and that's it!
- Your Excellency, there are political ones: Meshkov, Vereshchagin.
- Vereshchagin! Has he been hanged yet? - shouted Rostopchin. - Bring him to me.

By nine o'clock in the morning, when the troops had already moved through Moscow, no one else came to ask the Count's orders. Everyone who could go rode by themselves; those who stayed decided with themselves what they had to do.
The count ordered the horses to be brought to go to Sokolniki, and, frowning, yellow and silent, with folded hands, sat in his study.
In a calm, not stormy time, it seems to every administrator that only through his efforts the entire population under his jurisdiction moves, and in this consciousness of his necessity, every administrator feels the main reward for his labors and efforts. It is clear that as long as the historic sea is calm, the ruler and administrator, with his fragile boat resting against the ship of the people with his fragile boat and moving himself, should feel that the ship against which he rests is moving through his efforts. But as soon as a storm rises, agitates the sea and moves the ship itself, then delusion is impossible. The ship goes on with its huge, independent speed, the pole does not reach the moving ship, and the ruler suddenly from the position of a ruler, a source of strength, turns into an insignificant, useless and weak person.
Rostopchin felt this, and this irritated him. The chief of police, who was stopped by the crowd, together with the adjutant, who had come to report that the horses were ready, entered the count. Both were pale, and the police chief, having conveyed about the fulfillment of his assignment, said that a huge crowd of people stood in the count's courtyard, wishing to see him.
Rostopchin, without answering a word, got up and walked with quick steps to his luxurious bright living room, went to the balcony door, took the handle, left it and went over to the window, from which the whole crowd could be seen better. A tall fellow stood in the front rows and with a stern face, waving his hand, said something. A bloody blacksmith stood beside him with a grim look. The rumble of voices was heard through the closed windows.
- Is the crew ready? - said Rostopchin, moving away from the window.
“Ready, Your Excellency,” said the adjutant.
Rostopchin again went to the balcony door.
- What do they want? He asked the police chief.
- Your Excellency, they say that they are going to go to the French on your orders, they were shouting about treason. But a riotous crowd, Your Excellency. I left forcibly. Your Excellency, I dare to suggest ...
“Please go, I know what to do without you,” Rostopchin shouted angrily. He stood at the balcony door, looking out at the crowd. “This is what they did to Russia! That's what they did to me! " - thought Rostopchin, feeling an uncontrollable anger rising in his soul against someone who could be attributed to the cause of everything that happened. As is often the case with hot people, anger already possessed him, but he was still looking for an object for him. "La voila la populace, la lie du peuple," he thought, looking at the crowd, "la plebe qu" ils ont soulevee par leur sottise. Il leur faut une victime, whom they raised by their stupidity! They need a sacrifice. "] - it occurred to him, looking at the tall fellow waving his hand.
- Is the crew ready? He asked another time.
“Ready, Your Excellency. What will you order about Vereshchagin? He's waiting by the porch, replied the adjutant.
- A! - Rostopchin cried out, as if struck by some unexpected recollection.
And, quickly opening the door, he stepped out onto the balcony with decisive steps. The conversation suddenly ceased, hats and caps were removed, and all eyes went up to the Count who had come out.
- Hello guys! - said the count quickly and loudly. - Thank you for coming. I'll go out to you now, but first of all we need to deal with the villain. We need to punish the villain who killed Moscow. Wait for me! - And the count just as quickly returned to his chambers, slamming the door firmly.
An approving murmur of pleasure ran through the crowd. “It means that the villains will be ruled by the useh! And you say French ... he will untie you the whole distance! " - people said, as if reproaching each other for their lack of faith.
A few minutes later, an officer hurried out of the front door, ordered something, and the dragoons stretched out. The crowd eagerly moved from the balcony to the porch. Coming out with angry rapid steps onto the porch, Rostopchin hastily looked around him, as if looking for someone.
- Where is he? - said the count, and at the very moment he said this, he saw from around the corner of the house emerging between two dragoons of a young man with a long, thin neck, with a half-shaven and overgrown head. This young man was dressed in a once dandy, covered with a blue cloth, a shabby fox sheepskin coat and in dirty, bedside prisoners' trousers, tucked into unclean, worn thin boots. Shackles hung heavily on his thin, weak legs, making it difficult for the young man to hesitate.
- A! - said Rostopchin, hastily turning his gaze away from the young man in a fox sheepskin coat and pointing to the lower step of the porch. - Put it here! - The young man, clanging with shackles, heavily stepped onto the indicated step, holding the collar of his sheepskin coat with his finger, twisting his long neck twice and, sighing, folded his thin, non-working hands in front of his stomach with a submissive gesture.
For a few seconds, while the young man was settling down on the step, there was silence. Only in the back rows of people squeezing to one place was the groaning, groans, jolts and clatter of rearranged legs heard.

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 comprehension, 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 of 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.

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 advantages 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 he gained great importance.

In 1241 merchant unions the cities of Lübeck and Hamburg signed an agreement for the joint protection of 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 Yuriev (Derpt, 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 Hansa kept 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 were often dependent 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 in 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 dealings with the excluded city and should lead 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 gathered from time to time, to which representatives from all the cities, whose interests demanded this, were present. In any case, exclusion from the union was a very effective means against port cities; this was the case, 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, just like 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 each 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 the feeling dignity and they did not betray their measure: 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-Lubeck Canal, dug by the serfs of the Count of Lauenberg between 1391 and 1398, is in operation, 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 cart 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 Waldemar 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... Authentic floating wooden fortresses went out to sea - tall platforms rose up on the bow and stern, from which it is so convenient to repel the attack of the boarding enemy.

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 him.

The strengthening of the positions of the burgher class, the growth of crafts, the development of trade gave a chance for the centralizing policy of the German royal power, which, due to its adherence to imperial ambitions, it could not take advantage of. The ties of the cities with the central government were fragile, the crown was not able to protect the cities from the tyranny of the princes, to ensure the safety of land and sea trade routes, to protect German merchants abroad.

In these circumstances, cities that had common interests, which had something to defend and had enough resources for this, often looked for support and help from each other. This led to the folding already in the XIII century. regional unions of cities. Let us emphasize that the movement for the creation of urban alliances was a direct continuation of the communal movements.

Thanks to the consolidation of their economic and political position, the cities were able to more rally and more decisively defend their interests on a larger scale. In 1256, a union of coastal cities was formed: Lubeck, Hamburg, Luneburn, Wismar, Rostock, which became the basis of the future Great Hansa, which by the beginning of the 15th century. included about 160 cities in North and Central Germany.

Among them were Lubeck, Bremen, Hamburg, Rostock, Stralsund, Wismar. In 1254, the Rhine Union of Cities was founded; at the beginning of the XIV century. the Swabian Union arose, which included such cities as Ulm, Regensburg, Augsburg, Nuremberg, Basel, and others, which in 1381 united with the Rhine.

Each of these associations, as well as the cities that were part of them, had their own interests. The cities of northern Germany, initially competing with each other, gradually realized the need to seek dialogue with each other in a joint struggle for foreign markets. The Swabian Union, which defended the liberties of its members as imperial cities, was in conflict, first of all, with the emperor, while the Rhine cities fought mainly with small and medium feudal tycoons. But common interests also forced us to enter into dialogue.

So, at the end of the XIV century, when the impoverished small chivalry became more aggressive and active and began to unite in knightly societies that openly robbed the townspeople (Society with Leo, Society of St. Wilhelm, etc.), the Swabian-Rhine union managed to defend its interests. A war broke out, during which the combined forces of the cities won.

The unions defended the common trade interests of the burghers in their struggle against foreign merchants, compensating for the lack of the necessary state aid. This is especially evident in the activities of the Hansa, whose main task was to ensure favorable conditions for active intermediary trade, primarily in the Baltic region.

The most favored nation treatment for its members created by the Hansa was associated with the safety of trade routes, privileges in the payment of duties, both travel and trade, and the autonomy of German trading settlements in other countries.

The German court of the Hansa in Novgorod was a well-consolidated self-governing community. It was headed by an alderman foreman, who was elected by the general meeting of the merchants at the moment when the Hanseatic ships entered the mouth of the Neva.

The Hanseatic people were subject to the court of local authorities only if their litigation arose directly with the Novgorodians. The Hanseaticans paid only one travel fee to the Novgorod treasury - on the way to Novgorod, and one trade fee - for weighing goods. Such favorable terms of trade with Novgorod could be achieved due to the fact that German merchants were the most active of the Western European neighbors of Russia, who managed to take advantage of the geographical proximity to its trading outposts.

Almost the main role in the consolidation of North German cities here was played by the stability of business traditions and the good awareness of the German merchants in the intricacies of trade.

The Hansa was guided primarily by the interests of trade in its cities. Hence the main principle of her "political behavior" - maximum profits with minimum risk. Therefore, the Hanseatic League preferred peace negotiations to military action and economic pressure to a head-on collision.

Only in the most difficult situations The Hansa could go to extreme measures such as a trade blockade or military conflict.

The gradual strengthening of the positions of the North German cities, the increase in trade turnover, the ever stronger involvement of the main members of the Hanseatic League in the general trade and economic activities led to the fact that the strong members of the union - Lubeck and Hamburg, located at the intersection of the most important trade routes between the Baltic and North Seas, became weighed down by the fact that Denmark actually turned the Baltic into an inland sea. The hostilities lasted from 1367 to 1370. As a result of bloody battles, the Hansa managed to establish a trade monopoly on the Baltic Sea.

In 1370, 23 Hanseatic cities forced Denmark to sign the famous Peace of Stralsund. Under its terms, Hansa confirmed all the previous ones and received new privileges. She managed to achieve a reduction in duties for her merchants, guarantees of a gratuitous return to the owners of cargo from ships that suffered a disaster off the Danish coast. The trading posts located on the territory of the Danes received the right of supreme jurisdiction. Denmark was forbidden to crown its rulers without the consent of the Hansa.

The conclusion of the Stralsund Peace Treaty created an extremely favorable regime for the development of the Hanseatic transit trade, which in turn will affect the development of their own crafts and the export of their products to other countries. It was at the end of the XIV century. the range of exported products of German origin will expand - flour, beer, malt, coarse cloth, linen, metal utensils, wooden containers, ropes, etc.

At the end of the XIV century. the economic relations of Germany with Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Flanders, England, Prussia, Poland, Livonia and Russian north-western cities were determined, first of all, by the trade policy of the Hanseatic League. Hansa was able to play a dominant role in this region and ensure that the interests of the North German merchants in these countries are respected due to a number of factors.

The Hanseatic merchants were rooted in the tradition of relatively long-formed urban structures with extensive experience in trading activities, a developed legal tradition. Belonging to hereditary merchant families, it had the appropriate start-up capital and trade ties.

This favorably distinguished the German merchants from the merchants of those countries into which they penetrated, where the level of urban development was still relatively low and, accordingly, the "commercial culture" was undeveloped. And, finally, the factor of the consolidation of forces also played an important role.

Strong imperial and free cities, urban unions are a controversial phenomenon. On the one hand, the largest and most privileged of these cities, in circumstances where there was no urgent need to support each other, could be separatist, be the bearers of decentralizing tendencies, sometimes no less than the princes.

On the other hand, city unions tried to influence the king in maintaining peace in the country, objectively advocating centralization. The princes demanded their prohibition, so that after the Melfi Statute of 1231 the unions existed practically illegally.

Acquisition of ownership of land outside the city, etc.

Associated with the penetration of the Mecklenburg coin into economic activity union and discussion of this issue in the khanzetags.

One of the main conditions of the agreement is not to serve ships whose owners did business outside the union.

At the same time, the document guaranteed the English merchants privileges for trade with Prussia and other Baltic lands, published under Richard II on 12/20/1390 and confirmed on 1/17/1391.

The naming of English royal agents in Gdansk in 1538.

Here: the Livonian cities of the trade treaty that joined the Hansa

It is considered, along with Dorpat, an active participant in multilateral international and Russian-Gazean negotiations

The tradition of concluding trade agreements in Novgorod existed at the beginning of the XIV century. So, the peace of 1338, concluded in Dorpat by the ambassadors of both sides, entered into force only after its approval in Novgorod.

According to the charter, trade duties were reduced by half for the Hanseatic merchants, and two courtyards were allocated to the possession: one in Novgorod and one in Pskov. Livonian merchants did not have such privileges. Around 1600, personal letters of gratitude from the Moscow tsar began to be issued to the inhabitants of Lubeck, which favored trade in Pskov.

Bargaining in the agreed places.

Ruled by the Hanseatic merchants themselves

On the outskirts of Dorpat there was a Russian Gostiny Dvor (German Reussischer Gasthof), which was transferred to the city under the privileges of King Stephen Batory on December 7, 1582.

Only a small part of the copper (German capper) and tin (German tiine) came from the Kama, while the main supply was carried out by the Hanseatic people.

With the subsequent arrest of merchants and goods from both sides.

Decision of the Landtag of March 30, 1495.

Barrels for pickling and transporting herring were allowed to be made only by German coopers. They were brought to Skane along with salt by the Hanseatic people themselves.

Back in the IX-X centuries through Veliky Novgorod in Western Europe received Arab silver, oriental and Byzantine fabrics, tableware.

In 1468 the price of tar was 150% higher in London than in Gdansk.

In 1468, the price of flax in London was 100% higher than in Gdansk.

In 1468 the price of wanches was 471% higher in London than in Gdansk.

Taking into account the cost of freight, according to the study of H. Samsonovich (Polish. Samsonowicz H.), the profit of merchants in the trade of Gdansk with England in the 1460-1470s was within the limits of 84-127% on the example of the export of grain. It is interesting that in 1609 the British paid 35-50 florins for 1 grain of grain in Gdansk, and sold it in Holland for 106-110 florins.

In 1468 the price of riveting was 700% higher in London than in Gdansk.

Imperial City "

Charlemagne

Year of obtaining the status of "Free Imperial City"

Adolf IV of Holstein

First mention

Year of obtaining the status "Free

Using the Internet, prepare a report on the Hanseatic League. Think about which international organizations today are solving the problems facing the Hanseatic League during its existence.

Answer

Hanseatic League, Hanse, also Hansea (German Deutsche Hanse or Düdesche Hanse, Old-German Hansa - literally "group", "union", Latin Hansa Teutonica) - a political and economic union that united almost 300 trade cities of northwestern Europe from the middle of the XII to the middle of the XVII centuries. The date of origin of the Hansa cannot be precisely determined, since it is not based on a specific document. The Hanseatic League developed gradually as trade expanded along the shores of the Baltic and North Seas.

The reason for the formation of the Hanseatic League was the increase in the population of the territories north of the Elbe as a result of migration, the emergence of new cities and independent communes, and an increase in the resulting demand for goods and the growth of trade. The Hansa began to form from the 12th century as a union of merchants, then as a union of merchant guilds, and towards the end of the 13th century as a union of cities. The Hanseatic League included cities with autonomous city government (“city council”, town hall) and their own laws.

To develop general rules and laws of the Hanseatic League, representatives of the cities regularly gathered at conventions in Lübeck. Hanseatic merchants and companies enjoyed certain rights and privileges.

In non-Hanseatic cities there were representative offices of the Hansa - offices. Such foreign offices of the Hansa were located in Bergen, London and Bruges. At the most eastern end of the Hansa trading system, an office was founded in Novgorod (Peterhof), where European goods (wine, fabrics) were sold and hemp, wax, honey, timber, skins and furs were purchased.

Today, the tasks facing the Hanseatic League during its existence are solved by international organizations: the UN, various economic unions (SCO, OPEC, BRIC, etc.)