The Baltic Trade 223
It appears as though the Hanseatic trade in fur lost its importance in the
course of the fourteenth century—but it is difficult to determine considering
the state of our sources.114
Wood and Wood-products
The importance of the Baltic trade was based not only on luxury products like
wax and fur, but also on bulk goods, wood, wood-products and also metals,
as discussed in the next chapter. Wood export was a main pillar of the Baltic
trade from the middle of the thirteenth century until the end of the nineteenth
century. But this trade poses one main question: Why was wood transported
along the great distance from Belarus to England, when Scandinavia is so
much closer? The answer to this is threefold. Until the middle of the thirteenth
century England had indeed imported wood from Scandinavia, but thereaf-
ter the relation shifted.115 This can be seen with the intensifying of the ship-
ping traffic around the Skaw, but does not explain the entire issue. The price
relationship between the Baltic and the West must have been good enough
to be profitable to ship this bulk cargo such a long way. The reasons for this
are unknown until now. The old thesis, that Hanseatic ships were bigger
and therefore more profitable116 is wrong, as A. Englert has shown recently.117
But there must have been a connection between the rising traffic and the
beginning of the Baltic wood trade. Perhaps another explanation can be
seen in the different supply of Scandinavia and the Baltic East. Scandinavia
delivers primarily softwood, which is not suitable for constructing big ships,
whereas the Baltic East has a supply of prime oak tree.118 A third explanation
can be seen in the intrusion of Hanseatic merchants in the Norwegian trade
with England, which disregarded the old Norse wood-trade in place of other
products.119 Under this light the trade in wood between the Eastern Baltic and
the west can be seen as an artificial market, made by the interests of merchants
at this time and not by the geographically best possibilities.
114 But see J. Martin, The treasure of the Land, 84f.
115 Wendy R. Childs, “Timber for Cloth: Changing comodities in Anglo-Baltic trade in the
fourteenth century.” In Cogs, Cargoes, and Commerce. Maritime Bulk Trade in Northern
Europe, 1150–1400, ed. Lars Berggren, Nils Hybel and Annette Landen, Papers in Medieval
Studies, 15 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute, 2002), 181–211, here 191–196.
116 W. Childs, “Timber for cloth,” 203.
117 Anton Englert, Large cargo vessels in Danish waters, (Diss. Masch: Kiel, 2000).
118 Friedrich Mager, Der Wald in Altpreußen als Wirtschaftsraum, 2 volumes, Ostmitteleuropa
in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, Band 7/i–ii (Cologne, Graz: Boehlau, 1960), 25–28,
map i, 55–71.
119 W. Childs, “Timber for cloth,” 203.