136 Burkhardt
Novgorod Schra. The Schra was the name of the statutes aof the kontor in
Novgorod. All four kontors had their statutes, which defined the rules and regu-
lations of business and life at the kontors. Together with privileges, agreements
with the local rulers, and ordinances from the hometowns, the statutes were
the juridical base on which the merchants acted in their respective towns.
This applied both to trade, when they had to cope with differences among
each other, and when they had contact with the locals. Just as in modern law
books, some of the paragraphs in the statutes had ancient roots. They derived
from common merchant rules, unwritten regulations at the respective town
or trading place, or from no longer preserved older versions of ordinances.
In the case of the Novgorod Schra, we can follow the changes and extension
of the legal regulations of the kontor very clearly. New articles were added
when the merchants or the hometowns found them necessary to be written
down; other older regulations were abandoned or changed, or when they were
no more practicable or contrary to new rules. The permanent extension of the
statutes can also be traced in the statutes of the kontor in Bergen, where a ver-
sion that was written down in the middle of the sixteenth century contained
regulations that were dated to 1489, 1492, 1522, and 1545.10
The statutes’ development shows a much stronger influence of the home-
towns in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries compared to the time before
- In London and Bruges, particularly during the fourteenth and early fif-
teenth centuries, most articles were added to the statutes by initiative of the
kontors’ merchants. After the Peace of Utrecht in 1474, the hometowns took
control of the legislation in the kontors.11 Only in Bergen was there a reverse
development. The kontor appeared much more independent in the late fif-
teenth and sixteenth centuries. One probable explanation is that the Hanseatic
towns had to concentrate on their conflict with England and Flanders and deal
with the rising Dutch competitors in the North and Baltic Seas. This made the
kontor in Bergen seem less important in overall ranking, which reduced the
amount of attention they received from the hometowns.
As noted, a Hanseatic kontor was run by a board of aldermen and a board of
deputies, both of which were elected by merchants who were members of the
kontor. The will of the merchant community had the most weight. It was col-
lected and written down in the kontors’ statutes, which served as guidelines for
the board members’ decisions and actions. All merchants at the kontors had to
follow the statutes and other regulations. Violations against the statutes could
10 Burkhardt (2005b), 64.
11 Jörn (1999), 108–110; Henn (1987), 61.