The Early Hanses 47
Venice, which served as a control for foreign merchants.97 Within their own
jurisdiction, Low German merchants had the right to pronounce and enforce
punishments. They were independent of the respective mayors, except for
cases involving conflicts between (early) Hanse merchants and townspeople.
Third, an interest common to the cities from which the merchants came
arose from the organizational form of legal unions in the gemene kopman of
the foreign offices. This common interest facilitated the development of a
union of Hanse cities, also from the communities of the gemene kopman of the
foreign branches. After all, the merchant guilds of the individual towns were as
much a part of the gemene kopman of the foreign branches as their comrades
were members of the urban merchant guilds, which, in turn, were a part of
the municipality of the respective hometowns. One can see how closely the
merchants and cities were interwoven from the fact that trading treaties (privi-
leges), originally negotiated by merchants in the branches abroad, formed the
basis of trade for the entire alliance well into the sixteenth century.
‘Commercial Revolution’ and the Position of Long Distance Traders
on the Council
The economic, social and urban pre-requisites for the increasingly closer
connection between the merchants’ traveling companies and the cities are
depicted in this chapter. Their political history follows.
With regards to economic history, the thirteenth century bore ‘commer-
cial revolution’ as a theme. The term ‘commercial revolution’ was coined to
describe the fundamental changes to the trading organization of the Italian
merchants that had taken place since the twelfth century. The long distance
traders no longer traveled to the trade fairs; instead, they conducted their busi-
ness from the offices in their hometowns. They sent out factors to the buying
and selling places, which in turn settled there and conducted the business of
their senior in situ on location. This system enabled the senior partner to be
97 Angelo Pichierri, Die Hanse—Staat der Städte. Ein ökonomisches und politisches Modell der
Städtevernetzung, Stadt, Raum und Gesellschaft, vol. 10 (Opladen: Leske & Budrich 2000),
82; Anna Leonidovna Choroškevič, “Der deutsche Hof in Novgorod und die deutsche
Herberge (Fondaco dei Tedeschi) in Venedig im 13. / 14. Jahrhundert. Eine vergleichende
Vorstudie” in Ortwin Pelc and Gertrud Pickhan, eds., Zwischen Lübeck und Novgorod.
Wirtschaft, Politik und Kultur im Ostseeraum vom frühen Mittelalter bis ins 20. Jahrhundert.
Norbert Angermann zum 60. Geburtstag (Lüneburg: Nordostdeutsches Kulturwerk, 1996),
67–87.