A Companion to the Hanseatic League

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CHAPTER 4

Kontors and Outposts

Mike Burkhardt

Introduction

Discussions concerning economic activities of the Hansards often immedi-
ately turn to kontors and outposts. Once a merchant had left his home waters,
he found himself to be a stranger in areas with a different jurisdiction, and thus
more vulnerable than at home. This was especially true for long distance trad-
ers. Many Hanseatic merchants traded with outside areas controlled by their
hometowns or lords. They felt a special need for protection, assistance, and
cooperation. Following both human nature and the directives of their home-
town councils, they gathered and organized themselves into the group, “the
merchants of the Hanseatic towns,” later known as the kontors and outposts of
the Hanseatic League.
Most of these outposts were situated at the edge of the region, usually
known as the core area of Hanseatic trade. London in the Kingdom of England,
Bruges in the County of Flanders, Bergen in the Kingdom of Norway, and
Novgorod in the Russian principality of Novgorod were the largest of these out-
posts. At these junctions in the European trade network, the economic sphere,
partly dominated by the Hansards, connected various trade regions with dif-
ferent economic and social cultures, goods, and customs. These connections
provided Hanseatic trade with a huge influx of goods, ideas, and techniques.
Traditionally the Stalhof in London, the kontor in Bruges, Bryggen in Bergen,
and Peterhof in Novgorod are known as the kontors of the Hanse. Similar, but
smaller Hanseatic trading posts in other towns were referred to as outposts or
Faktoreien.
Since the kontors in London, Bruges, Bergen, and Novgorod are widely
known, and most research about the Hanseatic outposts has been done
on these four, we will concentrate on them in the first part of this chapter.
However, the focus on these four kontors must not deter us from looking at
smaller outposts and traders who went far beyond the “borders” of Hanseatic
trade. Especially intriguing is the question of where to place the Hanseatic
stronghold at Scania, a problem that will be discussed in the first section of
the chapter.