The Early Hanses 41
townleader of the guild. In other words, he was charged with holding the court
of merchants, leading the traveling company on excursions abroad and levying
fees owed to the king for their protection. No oaths have ever been documented
in connection with the early merchant guilds and traveling groups—neither
as pledge to the king or town ruler nor as fellowship oaths for members of
the merchant guilds and traveling companies. The afore-mentioned kore, the
right to decide, was also central to the specific rights of traveling merchants
(ius mercatorum). In consequence, merchants on trade excursions were able
to conduct their own affairs beginning in the early Middle Ages. This form of
autonomy was, in turn, acknowledged by the various sovereigns.
The traditions of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries with regard to the
constitution of traveling companies, the Hansen (sometimes they are also
called ‘guilds’), have not been conclusively demonstrated. While sources
from the regnum teutonicum mention only the traveling companies of indi-
vidual cities,83 the Hansen of Flanders possessed the ability to admit outside
merchants. However, this admission was sometimes possible only with the
payment of exorbitant fees intended to ensure that outside access could be
limited. In England, merchants, who met while actively engaged in trade, had
been permitted, to organize a Hanse since the 1120’s. This organization was, to
some extent, based on the hometown guild, which enjoyed royal protection
throughout the isles and sovereign territory of the English crown on the con-
tinent. The same right also applied to foreigners;84 this is why merchants from
Cologne, Kiel, Hamburg, and Lübeck made contracts with the English king in
behalf of their Hanse in the first place.
Delimitation towards foreign merchants (merchants not from their town),
even when they haled from a neighboring town within the same region, repre-
sented a key characteristic in the history of trade. Therefore, overcoming this
competition abroad on a permanent basis became an important accomplish-
ment for Low German Merchants who, perhaps in the late twelfth century and
certainly by the thirteenth century, were thus enabled to face their respec-
tive treaty partners as a single unit. This alliance was accomplished in vari-
ous branches (offices, Kontore) and countries at various times. For example,
beginning at the end of the twelfth century in Novgorod where the alliance
83 Ernst Pitz, “Einstimmigkeit oder Mehrheitsbeschluß? Ein heimlicher Verfassungsstreit
um die Vollmachten der Ratssendeboten auf den Hansetagen,” in Wilfried Ehbrecht,
ed., Verwaltung und Politik in Städten Mitteleuropas. Beiträge zu Verfassungsnorm und
Verfassungswirklichkeit in altständischer Zeit, Städteforschung A, vol. 34 (Cologne: Böhlau-
Verlag, 1994), 115–146, 138f.
84 Klaus Friedland, Die Hanse (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1991), 102f.