This summary is taken from a book titled The Dawn of a New Era 1250-1435 written by Edward P. Cheney, the first book in the 20-volume historical series The Rise of Modern Europe. The original copyright was in 1936; this particular copy is dated 1971, so the monetary figures in �modern value� are not accurate.
Chapter One: The Expansion of Trade and the Increase of Wealth
Introduction:
By the mid 13th century the middle ages had ended. During its time the Catholic Church had been organized and its doctrines formulated, the basic systems of laws had been elaborated, universities founded, the older towns chartered and the chief lines of commerce were marked out. Fading from view were feudalism, the Crusades, and the struggles between the secular empire and the papacy.
From the 13th century through the 15th, trade, industry and finance superseded agriculture as the main economic basis of European society, led by merchants, bankers, explorers and religious reformers.
Town life grew in importance, the middle class became more influential and the lower classes grew restive. Freedom replaced serfdom among the rural masses. Nationalism and monarchical states arose, the Catholic Church weakened and knowledge increased.
The Spread of Commerce:
Commerce led to the increase of wealth, enriching the lives of people, spurring them on to produce products that were needed elsewhere. The meeting of new peoples also led to the exchange of ideas, clothing and artwork. Towns and cities along trade routes grew in population wealth and influence. Some towns were founded on these routes.
The Materials of Commerce:
The oldest and largest (volume wise) items of trade were the products of necessity, such as salt, that were produced in certain places. In Europe, salt was taken from artificial salt pools on islands surrounding Venice. It was also found in the natural lagoons on the Bay of Biscay, the salt wells of Lunenburg and the salt mines of Salzburg.
Long lines of packhorses came down to the Istrian and Dalmatian shores of the Adriatic to retrieve the salt delivered by Venetian boats and disperse it throughout Serbia, Croatia and Hungary. The salt fleet from North Germany sailed to the coast of France to acquire the salt needed to preserve Baltic herring and stockfish from Scandinavia. England also sent ships for this product.
And for a fifty-mile stretch along the shores of Scania, in the sound between Denmark and Sweden, a temporary city of huts was established. During the harvesting of herring there were thousands of boats engaged in catching, salting packing and shipping. There were also coopers, rope-makers, blacksmiths and other artisans as well as purveyors of food and drink, possibly as many as 300,000 men gathering during the early autumns of the 14th century.
Wine was also a big seller, grown in the south and sent north. Gascony and Guienne were the most famous wine growing regions in Europe. Bordeaux lived largely on its profits of export and in England duties on import was one of the principal sources of royal income. The struggle for the possession of the sine trade was one of the factors that led to the Hundred Years War.
Wines from Burgundy and elsewhere in France made much of the trade of Bruges; German merchants had their wine-house set up in London for the selling of wine shipped from Cologne, Mainz and Strassburg; sweet wines from Italy, Greece and Crete were also craved for throughout Europe.
Also in demand was lumber. Shipbuilding regions had nearly exhausted their supply of trees and sought the needed wood from elsewhere. Oak, larch and fir were sent to Venetian and Ragusan shipyards from further inland or from the Black Sea. England got its spruce from Prussia, the Dutch also got its lumber from the Baltic regions. Pitch, for the treating of the ships and cordage, also was in demand. Furs, such as ermine, also came from the north and the east.
Hides, leather, tallow, hemp, honey, wax, grain, iron, lead, copper, tin, silver and gold also were shipped. The lead was used to cover the roofs of churches castles and town halls. Tin, from England, was mixed with lead to make pewter, and when mixed with copper made the bronze needed for cannons.
Wool was perhaps the largest item of trade, with hundreds of thousands of bales and sacks transported yearly. Eastern England and Northern Spain were known for their wool, which was exported to textile industries in Flanders, France and Italy. In 1273 an Italian company, the Scotti of Piacenza, shipped wool worth 14,266 pounds, equivalent to nearly one million dollars at today�s prices. In the same year the total export of wool from England was also near one million dollars, the government reaping $200,000 in taxes. The export duty on wool made up approximately one-third the ordinary income of the English crown.
Wool and other materials imported to the Flemish cities of Ghent, Ypres, Courtrai and others were used to produce fine woolen, linen, cotton and silk cloths that were exported elsewhere. Italian towns did the same, with Florence known for its weaving and dyeing.
Cities known for other products were Milan, Bordeaux, Nurnberg, and Marseilles as producers of iron, steel, armor, swords, firearms and cutlery; Lucca and Paris for silk; Venice for iron, glass, goldsmith�s work, bronze and silver bells; from elsewhere came such items as leather goods, objects of art in gold, silver, carved wood, iron and bone, statuary, gloves, fine productions of wool, linen and silk, illuminated manuscripts and musical instruments.
The names of certain items have their origin in the Cities from where they came from: Cambric from Cambrai, lawn from Laon, diapered cloth from Ypres, hangings from Arras, lace of Valenciennes, Brussels carpet and lace from that Netherland city. From places far from Europe came muslin from Mosul, calico from Calicut, damask from Damascus and buckram from Bokhara.
A 15th century list of goods imported to England: from Spain: dates, raisins, locorice, iron, Castile soap, wax, quicksilver; from Flanders: cloth and cartwheels. Beer, bacon, copper, silver, bow-staves, pitch, canvas and flax came from Prussia. Woolen and linen cloth and otter skins were also coming from Ireland.
Trade from the Levant (the shores and islands of the Mediterranean): Phocea produced alum, Chios mastic, from Cyprus, Crete, Asia Minor and Greece came olives, nuts, dyes, wine leather goods and cotton.
Beyond that, from the Far East, Persia, India, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, the Moluccas and China came drugs, perfumes, musk, civet, medicines, camphor, indigo and other dyes, fragrant and polished woods; precious stones like diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, turquoise, onyx, jade and pearls; spices like pepper, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace and allspice.
The Flanders Fleet of Venice:
Trade in the 13th century ranged from Russia in the northeast to Spain in the southwest; from the Slavic, German and Scandinavian coasts of the Baltic in the north to the African shores of the Mediterranean in the south; to the Levant in the southeast and even beyond these limits.
Venice was in an extremely favorable location, nearly the geographical center of Europe. Of the greatest western cities Venice nearest to the East and had the easiest access to the west. By land she had was also to reach by the important cities in the north, west and central Europe. Two innovations helped Venice to prominence. In the years 1290 to 1300 the merchant vessel known as the �great galley� was invented, and in 1317 an all-water trading route to England and Flanders was established.
The galleys were 120-150 feet long, with a crew of about 200. Propelled by oarsmen they also had masts and sails. There were about 30 benches on each side, with two or three banks of oars. During the 14th century the sails replaced the oarsmen as the principle means of sailing. These galleys were also was ships, either to protect their goods or serve as a navy during a war. They were replaced in the 16th century by the �round� sailing ships.
In commission were 40-50 vessels with 11,000 crewmen. Oarsmen were freemen, often immigrants from Slavonia or other parts of the mainland. Also used were war prisoners, condemned felons, and some slaves bought in the east, coming from the Black Sea and Egypt. There were 20-30 bowmen on each ship and the oarsmen also carried weapons. By 1350 the galleys were the property of the government and were rented to the merchants.
In 1317 a fleet of galleys sailed over 2,500 miles to England and Flanders. This means of transportation of goods lasting into the 16th century. This was known as the Flanders Fleet, there also were the Tana Fleet, Syrian Fleet, and the Egyptian Fleet. [Tana is a Hindu word; I guess the Tana Fleet acquired products from India.]
The Senate of Venice would appoint captain and vice-captain of each fleet, chosen from one of the �noble� families and gather a company of archers. They then would auction off freight space for importers and exporters. At one time the captain was required to have on board two trumpeters, two fifers, a notary public, a physician and a group of clerks. They would set sail in early spring, making numerous stops along the way until it reached England and Flanders. In each of these two locations there were allowed 30-50 days to unload their goods and to fill the ship with cargo for their trip home. Venetian merchants resided on foreign soil in their own communities.
These traders and especially the sailors might become involved in conflict and even piracy. In 1319 Nicoleta Basadona, an agent for a Venetian merchant, was either murdered by his English crew or died on board. The crew took his shipment of wool and sold it. The king of England repaid the merchant for his losses. In 1322 a brawl between the crews of five Venetian galleys and the residents of Southampton occurred. Several Englishmen died and property was destroyed. The masters of the galleys made payment. The next year two Venetian ships were plundered in retaliation. The king, concerned about his income, issued a pardon and offered protection for the Venetians. Disputes still followed, and oarsmen were denied shore leave to avoid further conflict.
Also with English captains asserting their �command of the seas� three ships ordered a fleet of Venetian galleys to strike their sails. Upon refusal they attempted to board the ships. Eighteen English sailors died and two Venetians also perished.
In the late 14th and early 15th centuries, due to their treatment by the English the Venetians, Genoese, Florentines and Luccans quit London and established themselves at Winchester, agreeing not to buy or sell at London.
Along with the import and export duties paid to the crown, the Venetian merchants also lent money to kings. They refused to loan their galleys, however. The wealth of Venice funded not only wars and diplomacy, but also went to the raising of extravagant churches, palaces and public buildings, public works, the collecting of art and enabled her to become the leader in the artistic and intellectual Renaissance.
The Hanseatic League:
Other European cites that were leaders on trade and commerce that were on a par with Venice were Genoa, Pisa and Florence in Italy; Marseilles in France; Barcelona in Spain and numerous other cities. There was also an organized group of northern Germany cites collectively known as the Hanseatic League. Confederations of towns, seen throughout Europe, were especially characteristic of Germany. The loose organization of the Empire left these cities semi-independent and subject to many dangers. They found strength in these confederations. Merchants were exposed to exorbitant tolls on rivers and roads, tyranny and violence by the nobility and depredations of pirates and highwaymen. Besides these problems the cities needed to combine their influence to obtain privileges of trade in foreign countries.
There were previous confederations in Germany. The Westphalian, the Swabian, three successive Rhenish leagues and others, which included from five to six to eighty to ninety towns. These leagues were mostly in southern and central Germany and they sought after political strength in the Reichstag and in the government of the country.
The northern confederation was based purely on commercial aspirations. The emperor had little effect on their independence and their commerce. Towns like Lubeck, Hamburg and Rostock that were situated on harbors or deep rivers became great. Small villages on the rivers saw a change from agriculture and serfdom to commerce, freedom and self-government.
Unity among 13th century towns brought benefits. There were agreements for reciprocal privileges of trade and protection. They also obtained privileges in other cities and rights in other countries. The confederation grew until it included over eighty cities and became the Hanse of the North German Cities or the Hanseatic League.
In 1259 Lubeck, Rostock and Wismar agreed that to allow known pirates or robbers to dispose of their goods in their towns would make that town of equal guilt with the outlaws. Other towns made similar agreements. In 1265 a group of German towns agreed to be subject to one code, �the Law of Lubeck.� In 1293 another 26 towns agreed to be governed by this code. By 1300 the foundations of a general league had already been laid.
Trade was being extended more widely, on the seas and the rivers as well. The cities on the Baltic or the larger rivers secured the old trade between the German, Scandinavian and Slavonic shores, as far as Revel in the east, the island of Gothland to the north, and England, Norway and Iceland to the west. Ships of the Hanseatic cities brought commerce and from London, Bruges, Rouen and other west European cities.
The earliest known membership list was recorded in 1360. In 1367 the League took its first military action. After disputes with the king of Denmark who had some Hanse towns under control and other regions where the towns had trading privileges the towns decided to go to war. Each town was to supply soldiers, supplies or money. Any town not contributing would be excluded from trade with the others and in places where the where they had joint privileges. With success in its naval and military operations the League captured Copenhagen and most of the towns and fortresses of Denmark and Norway, and in 1370 dictated a treaty that gave them all the commercial privileges they sought after in the Baltic and a hefty amount of political influence in the north. In 1375 Emperor Charles IV gave the league formal recognition.
From this time the Hanseatic League became of the great powers of Europe through the 15th century. The League created precedents, adopted ordinances, regulated commerce and excluded interlopers from their fields of trade. They had their own flag, sent diplomats abroad and made treaties with Scandinavian kingdoms, with England and with Poland.
Beginning in the mid 14th century there were diets, or meetings of delegates of cities belonging to the League. Larger cities often represented groups of smaller cities. Small groups of towns sometimes met to consider special interests. The full meetings were usually held at the great gild hall at Lubeck, usually for reasons of commerce, but also for political, military and diplomatic reasons as well. These meeting provided for the protection of merchants and their merchandise at sea and on the roads, the improvement of rivers and harbors; the establishment of common weights, measures and coinage; the settlement of disputes among merchants at home and abroad; the securing of new privileges and the opening of new lines of trade; the drawing up of a new almanac that showed the harbors, lighthouses, buoys and other indications useful to navigators from Riga to Lisbon.
The cities were in the main aristocratic in their government, and the older towns contained a large patrician class of property owners and office holders. The commercial interests extended to the middle classes, and even to the lower classes. The ships were often owned by rich burghers, but were also the property of the chamber of commerce of the town, or were commonly owned jointly by commoners. As in Italian and French towns the ships were a favorite form of investment, and there could even be an ownership of a 32nd or a 64th part of a ship. The captain, master and sailors were often large or small shareholders.
The vessels were like the early Venetian �round� ships, small and of forty tons burden. The later �hulks� or �cogs� that were sent on longer voyages were of 200 to 250 tons burden. These had up to three masts and numerous crewmen and twenty or more armed men. At times they sailed in fleets accompanied by a convoy.
Some of the largest and most influential League cities were Lubeck, Hamburg, Danzig, Bremen, Dortmund, Cologne, Hanover, Gronigen and Magdeburg. All were within the German Empire, the kingdom of Poland, or in the territory of the Teutonic Knights. But the merchants were established in settlements and enjoyed trade privileges, landed property and an organized life of their own in many French and English towns, the Scandinavian kingdoms and Russia. Four of these settlements were known as foreign �factories�, located at Bruges, Bergen, Novgorod and London.
In the 13th and 14th centuries Bruges was the most important commercial city in Europe outside the Mediterranean. It was the exchange center for a greater variety of products than were handled in any other city. The Hanseatic settlement dated to 1252. One of fifteen foreign settlements in Bruges, there were League warehouses and dwelling places along the harbor where 200 to 500 merchants resided. It was a highly organized colony, with six aldermen, a council of eighteen, its own courts, and a body of ordinances governing its members and defining relations with the city.
The �Court of St. Peter� at the Russian free city of Novgorod, with its German church, courtyard with palisade, its dwellings, brew house, bakery, hospital and warehouses, merchants and alderman, protection of grants from the city-government, had been from 1272 the resort of German merchants.
Bergen in Norway was in the League�s power, from an early date a practical monopoly of all exchangeable products of the northernmost regions of Europe was held by the Hanse: all kinds of fish and salt for curing them, whale oil, rosin and pitch, eiderdown for pillows, and many rough commodities that the Norwegians were not capable of trading for themselves. At the height of its prosperity the League had 22 separate �yards� in Bergen, blocks of buildings each with storing and shipping facilities, and each with dwellings for merchants and their employees. The German colony was said to have at one time 3,000 members representing 58 Hanse towns. Governed by two aldermen, eighteen members of a council and a secretary who was always a doctor of laws. There was a deputy governor for each yard.
At the start of the 15th century English merchants from Lynn tried to break the monopoly and establish a settlement. Their houses were broken into, they were beaten and the Germans seized their goods. In 1406 ninety-six Englishmen were captured while fishing off the coast. Their hands and feet were tied together and were thrown overboard and drowned by the Germans.
The Steelyard in London:
�The Steelyard� was the best known of these outlying agencies of the Hanseatic League. It was located near the London Bridge on the edge of the river. German merchants bought the land during the 13th and 14th centuries and built dwellings, warehouses, the great council hall, a kitchen, offices, gardens, a strong building for treasure and records, a storage house for wine, a great wharf with weighing beam and crane, all secured by the outer gates that make the area similar to a fortification. Later on more homes were constructed nearby. The origin of the name is unknown. In German it is Stahlhof. Steel may have been unloaded there; the weighing beam, the �stilliard� was the most conspicuous feature; it may have come from �stapleyard� or stapelhof.
From at least the year 1250 King Henry III gave letters of protection to German merchants that would cover at least sixty cities over the next 300 years. This community totaled anywhere from 200 to 300 persons. An alderman, elected anew each year, governed the colony. As the community grew two assistant aldermen and nine counselors were also appointed yearly. The elected officials took an oath of justice for the merchants and to respect the laws and customs of the city of London. After 1400 there was also a Steelyard clerk who was a go-between for the merchants and the municipal and national governments. He was often a clergyman and regularly trained in Roman law.
Curfew was set at nine o�clock at night. No women were permitted into the colony. All residents had to have his armor and weapons ready for possible defense of the city. The merchants bought and sold in the fairs and town markets. They attended regular services in the church of All Saints, the parish in which the Steelyard was located. December 5th was their gild-day, with special services followed by a sumptuous feast in the great hall. There were several other �steelyards� throughout the east of England, but they were not of much importance.
Other Settlements:
For the most part trade was the livelihood of merchants living as a group in foreign cities with special privileges granted by national, feudal or municipal governments. The rights were not difficult to come by because the governments sought the import and export duties and the affluent wanted their articles of beauty, convenience and luxury. The merchants were also relied upon as moneylenders to kings.
In 1303 Edward I king of England issued the Carta Mercatoria, the �Merchant�s Charter,� a very liberal grant of trading privileges that offered freedom of entry and departure, import and export and residence in England for all traders from all countries. Disputes with native merchants were to be resolved by the �Law merchant� with juries consisting of one half of countrymen of the merchant if possible. Favored foreigners were required to pay only the same duties as Englishmen. There were other privileges that made the charter so attractive to foreign merchants. This generous policy lasted for 200 years though native merchants sought modifications. Other rulers and city governments gave similar grants.
The Spread of Maritime and Commercial Law:
There was uniformity of the maritime law for European nations. This was due to custom and tradition. These laws also found their beginnings in the old Roman sea-law. The Rhodian and Basilican codes of the later Roman Empire were well known in the early middle ages to the Italian maritime towns, and the conquerors of those regions did not tamper with them. The rules regarding the sharing of losses from collision, shipwreck, or piracy, salvage, liability for the payment of freight, wages of mariners, joint ownership, charter pay and a vast number of other customs, including even marine insurance, go back to classical times. They reappear in the later Middle Ages in the sea laws of many Italian cities. These laws and the methods of making sea law spread to France, Spain and northward.
One of the most popular sea codes was the Rolls of Oleron, a little island trading-town on the west coast of France. This came early in date, possibly dating back to the 11th century. It began with twenty-four articles, and added to over the years. The code was adopted by Brittany, Normandy, England and the Netherlands, where it was named the �Sea Laws of Flanders.� This code was respected where other codes were used. In the Baltic the �Town Laws of Wisby� and the �Law of Lubeck� rivaled Oleron. The Law of Lubeck became the basis of the whole system of sea-law of the Hanseatic League. Later on a code known as the �Consulate of the Sea� from Barcelona spread across the seacoast cities from the Mediterranean to the Baltic.
Commercial law, dealing with trade at fairs and in the city markets, was also similar in the different countries. Contracts, security of purchases, responsibility for payment, partnerships, powers and charges of brokers, trademarks, bills of lading and of exchange and numerous other subjects were the interests of special courts and were decided by appropriate law. There were the basic elements of Germanic and Roman law found in these codes.
Officials in Italian cities tried cases between visiting and native merchants as early as the 12th century. Elsewhere gild courts fulfilled the same functions as well as the �pie powder� courts of the towns and fairs. The medieval maritime and commercial law approached the status of international law. And where foreign trade developed the earlier medieval codes were adopted in amplified form.
The Increase of Wealth:
Much of the great wealth of Europe was squandered by war, riot and waste and the Black Death also took its toll. The burden of production and sustaining the continent�s wealth fell upon the shoulders of the merchant, the farmer and the artisan.