Kontors and Outposts 139
groups. This structure survived until 1486, when the number of aldermen was
reduced to three and the deputies to nine.20 The development of the kontor
of Bruges shows the same active players as in London. Of course, these were
mainly the largest towns, which supplied the market with many more mer-
chants than the smaller towns could. In 1252 and 1253, Countess Margaret ii of
Flanders issued documents to define and improve the rights of the Mercatores
Romani imperii, merchants of the Roman Empire.21 Other towns were inter-
ested in these privileges, namely Lübeck and Hamburg, both of which led
negotiations. Both towns strengthened their positions with proxies issued by
the towns of Cologne, Dortmund, Soest, Münster, and Aachen. Here again,
Wendish and Westphalish towns were the first to negotiate privileges for their
merchants. It was not until 134722 and 135623 that there were written statutes
for the kontor in Bruges. However, that does not mean that nothing happened
to the organization of the Hanseatic merchants in the town. On the contrary,
in the statutes from 1356 we find they mirror a very complex organized group
of merchants with the already named handicap of not having their own fenced
area in the town. The statutes consisted of no less than ninty-five articles, most
of which were concerned with trade regulations, but 16 concerning financing
and organizing the kontor.24
As they lacked a natural meeting point as provided by the other three kontors,
the Hansards in Bruges often used the monastery of the Carmelite order for
meetings. Here they also had their archive and their own chapel,25 and the
first known statutes of the kontor were issued here as well. Although we have
information to assume that the kontor had a building at its disposal already
in the first half of the fifteenth century,26 we do not have evidence of such a
building before the Hansards rented the Oosterlingenhuis as a representative
building in 1442.27 Finally, in 1478, the construction of the kontors representa-
tive building at the Oosterlingenplein in the center of the town was finished.28
Still, the monastery of the Carmelite order did not lose its importance, espe-
cially as it also was the most important religious center for the memorial of the
20 Sosson (1984), 181.
21 Sprandel (1990), 72f.; (1982), 182ff.
22 Hanserezesse i, 1, Nr. 143; Sprandel (1982), 347–349.
23 Archiv der Hansestadt Lübeck, Altes Senatsarchiv, Externa, Batavica, Kopiar ix.
24 Burkhardt (2005b), 71.
25 Asmussen (1999), 76f.
26 Burkhardt (2005b), 74.
27 Ryckaert (1990), 12.
28 Sosson (1984), 174–181; Asmussen (1999), 77.