28 Hammel-Kiesow
Swedes, Ölandians, Goths, Livs and all the peoples of the East. This exemp-
tion was still documented in the first charter of municipal law drawn up
between 1226 and 1234.50 By employing these free trade policies with regard
to their Baltic neighbors, it is possible that they were already trying to com-
pete with the more prominent center of transshipment in Schleswig to divert
larger shares of goods to Lübeck than ever before. It was in this manner that
they attempted to draw sufficient tonnage to the city on the Trave from the
seafaring merchants of the Baltic region.51 The common, or mutual, trading
organization of the gilda communis comprised of Gutnish and Low German
merchants presumably developed from this cooperation; this will be discussed
later in more detail. The great town seal of Lübeck is reminiscent of this era of
joint trade. There is an intensive discussion what type of ship the seal depicts.
Most likely it is a hybrid type that combined elements of the early cogs as well
as of Scandinavian ships.52 The seal may depict the helmsman, or the stýri-
maðr of Nordic sources. The helmsman was often the ship’s owner and respon-
sible for granting the merchant admission to the board community. In the seal,
this is attested by the helmsman’s outstretched right arm. Under the treaty, the
merchant was granted protection and security through the stýrimaðr, ensur-
ing that both could form a trading company.53 Thus, the seal image presum-
ably mirrors the state of trade in the city of Lübeck in the first centuries of its
existence.
50 UBStL 1, no. 32.
51 These ‘free trade politics’ probably were less connected with a basically new kind of trade
policy, which was not set on skimming off the trade any more, but which supposedly
also considered the profitability of the detour of free trade, as Blomkvist, Discovery, 697f.,
states. Rather, the Lower German merchants and Henry the Lion simply obeyed the force
of circumstances: Only people with ship space could participate in sea trade.
52 Ellmers, Detlev, “Kogge und Holk als Schiffe der Hanse,” in Michael Hundt and Jan
Lokers, eds., Hanse und Stadt. Akteure, Strukturen und Entwicklungen im regionalen und
europäischen Raum. Festschrift für Rolf Hammel-Kiesow zum 65. Geburtstag (Lübeck:
Schmidt-Römhild 2014), 53–67, 58–61; Reinhard Paulsen, “Die Koggendiskussion in der
Forschung. Methodische Probleme und ideologische Verzerrungen” HGbll. 128 (2010):
19–112, 86–96; Detlev Ellmers, “Koggen kontrovers,” HGbll. 128 (2010): 113–140; Carsten
Jahnke, “Koggen und kein Ende. Anmerkungen zu den Thesen von Reinhard Paulsen und
Detlev Ellmers,” zvlga 91 (2011): 305–320.
53 Carsten Jahnke, “Zur Interpretation des ersten Lübecker Schiffssiegels,” zvlga 88 (2008),
21–22.