Towards The Close
Of This Century, Hamburgh Is Noticed As A Place Of Trade.
The two cities of Lubeck and Hamburgh are generally regarded as having laid
the foundation of the Hanseatic League.
This League was first formed,
solely to protect the carriage by land of merchandize between these cities;
it is supposed to have been began about the middle of the thirteenth
century. Other cities soon joined the League, and its objects became more
multiplied and extensive; but still having the protection and encouragement
of their commerce principally in view. The total number of confederated
cities was between seventy and eighty. Lubeck was fixed upon as the head of
the League: in it the assemblies met, and the archives were preserved.
Inland commerce, the protection of which had given rise to the League, was
still attended to; but the maritime commerce of the Baltic, as affording
greater facilities and wealth, was that with which the League chiefly
occupied itself. The confederated cities were the medium of exchange
between the productions of Germany, Flanders, France, and Spain; and the
timber, metals, fish, furs, &c. of the countries on this sea.
The conquest and conversion of the pagan countries between the Vistula and
the Gulf of Finland, by the Teutonic knights, was favourable to the
commercial views of the confederated cities; for the conquerors obliged the
natives to confine their attention and labour exclusively to agriculture,
permitting Germans alone to carry on commerce, and engage in trade. Hence
Germans emigrated to these countries; and the League, always quicksighted
to their own interests, soon connected themselves with the new settlers,
and formed commercial alliances, which were recognized and protected by the
Teutonic knights.
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