226 Jahnke
Masovia.126 The Teutonic Order exported the ash directly to Flanders, where the
Order in the port of Damme had rented three booths for ash.127
It is not possible to give the whole quantity of exported ash from the Baltic,
but figures can be given from the years 1464 and 1465, which can give clues as
to their value.
table 6.3 Ash transported on the Vistula River
Year Ash, 1st quality
asche gud
Ash, 2nd quality
asche wrakAsh, 3rd quality
asche wrak wrak1464 1957 barrels 2902 barrels 1207 barrels
1465 1164 barrels – –
M. Biskup, Handel Wiślany, 181
The value of the ash is not clear, but in 1362/63 ash had a value of 2,684 m.l. and
in 1369/71 of 5,066 m.l. was declared in Thorn,128 but we have to consider the
fact that ash was a very cheap good compared to its weight and lastings.
Another byproduct of the wood-trade was pitch and tar, used in shipbuild-
ing and also for military purposes. These products were produced from the
stubs of the felled trees used for wood and thus belong in the same category
as other wood-products.129 The demand on these products was enormous,
mainly because of growing shipbuilding throughout Europe. Modern archaeo-
logical practices demonstrate that a new ship of 25 tons needed in the first two
years two coatings with tar annually and one coating annually afterwards, with
10 l barrels reckoned per coating.130 Considering the fact that the average size
of a medieval fleet was many times bigger than 25 tons, we can only estimate
how many barrels of tar and pitch were used annually.
We are missing total numbers of export for this trade as well, but we do have
a first lead from the Vistula area in 1463, 1464 and 1465.
126 K. Goetz, Handelsgeschichte, 514f.; C. Sattler, Handelsrechnungen des Deutschen Ordens
(Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1887), xviif. and xxxiif.
127 C. Sattler, Handelsrechnungen, 18.
128 K.-O. Ahnsehl, Thorns Seehandel, 34f.
129 Rolf Gelius, “Teer und Pech im Seehandel der Ostseeländer im letzten Jahrhundert der
Hanse (1550–1650),” Hansische Geschichsblätter 120 (2002), 181–203.
130 C. Jahnke, “Der Ostseeraum,” forthcoming.