Kontors and Outposts 161
Conclusion
Kontors and outposts were one important piece in the Hanseatic trading sys-
tem. A huge part of Hanseatic merchants’ trade was carried out here. Although
in quantitative respect, trade between Hanseatic towns was the most impor-
tant business in the region, kontors and outposts fulfilled an essential role in
the trade mesh of the Baltic and North Sea regions. Only at these places could
Hanseatic merchants get rid of the surpluses produced in their region. Only
here they could acquire all the supplies, luxury, and exotic goods over which
the burghers of the Hanse towns competed for better economic conditions.
The human desire to feel unique, to exhibit wealth and success, and to have
a more comfortable life than their forefathers did was always an essential driv-
ing force for economic growth. In this respect the kontors and outposts with
their supply of goods that otherwise never would have reached the Hanseatic
markets were vital to developing a market-oriented business mentality in
the Hanseatic region. As they had a demand for certain goods that only the
Hanseatic merchants were able to supply, as in the case of Norwegian flour
and cereals import, the Hansards had the unique chance to obtain monopolies
such as trade conditions and privileges in the kontors. This was especially true
in Bergen and Novgorod, and to a lesser extent even in London and Bruges.
Thus, even the Hanseatic merchants had a vital role in the existence and
growth of the trading places where they had kontors and outposts.
For Hanseatic merchants, kontors and outposts were the places they could
feel Hanse as an institution the most. Back home, the towns’ interest was
strongly connected to a merchant’s economic fate and was the most impor-
tant guideline for his economic-political decisions. At the kontors, he met mer-
chants from many other towns with their own interests. Only together could
they gain the best profit and the most favorable conditions and privileges.
They were forced to find a common strategy and way of handling problems.
In the eyes of the local authorities, most of the time, they were no longer bur-
ghers of Kampen, Lübeck, Cologne, Danzig, or Unna. They were merchants
of the German Hanse. So in looking for a common sentiment of affiliation to
something called the Hanse, we have to go to the merchants at the kontors and
outposts.
Kontors and outposts varied in their importance to the Hanseatic trade
and to the local economy of their host towns. Some attracted thousands of
Hansards every year, some were occupied the year round, and others were only
visited by a handful of merchants in the summer. But Hanseatic merchants
left their traces in all of these places and thus made the Hanse region part of
an European economic culture that covered most parts of the continent and
adjacent regions.