Kontors and Outposts 149
obtained in the statutes. Though there were many merchants at the kontors
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, by the fifteenth century, the num-
ber of traveling merchants decreased. While merchants in earlier centuries
seemed to have traveled regularly to the kontors and spent a lot of time away
from their hometowns, it looks like they became more resident in one Hanse
town towards the end of the Middle Ages. The merchants living at the kontor
were mostly junior partners trying to establish themselves in a market segment
and to get enough business rolling to settle down in a Hanse town themselves.
This might also be a reason for employing secretaries at the London, Bruges,
and Bergen kontors. As junior partners ran business abroad independently, the
larger merchants who didn’t visit the kontor in person might have felt the need
to check and control to ensure trade still was done according to the rules.
Since some merchants didn’t trade at the kontors regularly, they didn’t own
houses or rooms there. They had to find a merchant with a house at the kontor
and live with him as a guest.51 Although they had all rights in trade accord-
ing to the privileges valid for all Hanseatic merchants, they didn’t enjoy the
rights of political and legal participation. On the other hand, they also didn’t
have to perform some of the duties, such as leading the night watch or paying
full residential taxes. The permanent residents of the kontor didn’t always have
friendly feelings towards these intruders. In 1556, an older merchant, Tommies
Eschink, traveled to Bergen’s kontor for the first time in his life. The aldermen
freed him from participating in the Bergen plays, but some assistants still beat
him up without getting punished.52
For all groups, boys, assistants, and merchants alike, work set the tone of the
life at the kontors. Agreements had to be made between suppliers and custom-
ers; goods had to be transported, sorted, weighed, checked, packed, and stored;
books had to be kept; and decisions to be made. Most of the day was occupied
by such activities. Still, community spirit was very important to the kontor’s
members. In the evenings, they gathered in common rooms to eat and talk
together.53 In Bergen, these houses were the only stone buildings at the kontor
and the only ones to be heated. They provided a very natural meeting room for
everybody. But also from Novgorod we know that the boys were taught basic
knowledge, and the chess figures at the site of the kontor indicate that this
was one of several pastimes of the kontor’s inhabitants.54 Of course, life at the
kontor meant much more than merchants’ business. All activities of daily life
51 Burkhardt (2006), 68.
52 Koren Wiberg (1932), 96.
53 Jörn (2000), 433ff.; Burkhardt (2006), 42–44.
54 Mühle (1997), 163.