234 Jahnke
vitrol171 and quicksilver172 played a part, as did flax,173 hemp,174 tallow, skins175
or dairy products, like butter, or luxury goods like silk or spices.176 But it can be
generally noticed that the axis from Danzig to Thorn-Lviv served until 1400 as a
pendant to the much better known route from Lübeck to Bruges. Luxury prod-
ucts such as silk or spices or rare products like alaun came from both directions
into the Hanseatic trade.
In summary, the Baltic connected a wide hinterland from the Ural to Arabia
with the north and west European trade. The Baltic was the main transport-
route but also the main market for some of the most important European
trading goods and acted as an important part of the European economy. The
Hanseatic merchants acted as negotiators between the east and the west.
They possessed the necessary connections and the knowledge of the different
market systems and they had the techniques to bridge the very long distances
between such cities as Novgorod, Lviv, and Cracow in the east and Bruges,
London, and Antwerp in the west. This was the special function and role that
the Hanseatic merchants had in the medieval economy.
The Inner Baltic Trade
In contrast to the old opinion,177 Hanseatic trade is today defined as trade
done by Hanseatic merchants, between or from towns which were members
of the Hanseatic League. This definition is important, because the Hanseatic
trade was not only the high speed trade between Riga and Amsterdam but also
the small scale traffic between Reval and Viborg or between Stockholm and
Wismar.
and Werner Kroker (Bochum: Vereinigung der Freunde von Kunst und Kultur im
Bergbau 1984), 1876–198. Der Anschnitt, Beiheft; Th. Hirsch, Danzigs Handelsgeschichte,
181 and 186.
171 R. Gelius, “Färberwaren,” 104f.
172 H. Oesterreich, “Handelsbeziehungen,” 86; K.-O. Ahnsehl, Thorns Seehandel, 54.
173 A. Attman, Den ryska marknaden, Bilag 1.
174 A. Attman, Den ryska marknaden, 9 and Bilag 2.
175 A. Attman, Den ryska marknaden, 12.
176 F. Renken, Der Handel, 137f; K.-O. Ahnsehl, Thorns Seehandel, 56f.
177 See for example Rolf Hammel-Kiesow, “Wer kaufte die Waren des hansischen Handels?
Eine Annäherung an die Endverbraucher.” In “kopet uns werks by tyden”, Beiträge zur han-
sischen und preußischen Geschichte, ed. Nils Jörn, Detlef Kattinger and Horst Wernicke
(Schwerin: Thomas Helms Verlag, 1999), 73–80, here 73.