156 Burkhardt
1280 and 1457.78 Also, in Novgorod, local conflicts led to boycott, unrest, and
violence.79 In the fifteenth century, the towns still used this weapon in politi-
cal conflicts, but as the examples of the Hanseatic embargo against England of
1435 and of the Baltic Sea towns’ blockade of trade with England between 1469
and 1474 show,80 the lack of unity among the Hanse towns was already so huge
that the action didn’t have the same success as the blockades of the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries.
Still, most of the solutions of political differences between Hanse towns and
local rulers were reached by diplomatic means.81 Negotiations were difficult
and expensive, so the towns would often send envoys from one or only a few
towns, backing them with letters of support. Lübeck mostly was entrusted with
such diplomatic missions. The council of Lübeck had gained a lot of experi-
ence with diplomatic missions since the thirteenth century and the economic
power of this town gave their delegations much weight on the north European
political scene. However, sometimes the political ambitions of the town coun-
cils went far beyond economic need or even contradicted the merchants’ inter-
ests. In such cases, the kontors showed a remarkable independence in their
decisions. In 1522 for example, on the brink of war between Denmark-Norway
on the one side and the Hanse towns on the other, the kontor in Bergen and
the towns’ bishop and the royal governor signed a treaty that would prevent
mutual impairment in case of armed conflict.82
But the Hanse towns were not the only towns that used the importance of
the kontors as a political weapon. In 1479, the Russian tsar closed the Peterhof
in Novgorod down in order to prevent the Hansards from cooperating with
the Swedes in their war with Russia.83 In 1467, the king of England confiscated
all Hanseatic commodities in London and took the Hanseatic merchants pris-
oner. The Hansards were accused of cooperating with Denmark in its conflict
with England and had to pay for English merchants’ losses in the war.84 We see
that the kontors were of real economic importance to both sides and could be
used as weapons in political conflict.
78 Asmussen (1999), 58ff.
79 Rybina (1998), 327f.; Angermann (1989), 175.
80 Burkhardt (2007), 82f.
81 Wubs-Mrozewicz (2007).
82 Archiv der Hansestadt Lübeck, Archiv der Bergenfahrerkompanie zu Lübeck und des
Hansischen Kontors zu Bergen in Norwegen (1278) bzw. 1314 bis 1853, Nr. 1420.
83 Angermann (1989), 175.
84 Burkhardt (2007), 82f.