(^200) HANDEL
permanent family and business connections in Amsterdam. In the same period,
there were about twenty British agents, mainly Scots, who formed the core of a
flourishing colony. These foreign entrepreneurs, who acted on commission for
partners spread throughout Europe, dominated banking and credit operations
as well as basic commercial transactions. With greater capital resources, more
ships and continental contacts at their command, they gradually squeezed their
local competitors until something approaching a foreign monopoly was estab-
lished. In theory at least they were greatly assisted by the Polish law of 1496
which prevented native merchants from travelling abroad.
The 'Amsterdam Fleet' grew steadily. In 1642, no less than 2,052 vessels called
at Danzig.^3 On any one day, but especially during the August Fair which opened
on St. Dominic's Day, four or five hundred ships would have been moored at the
quays on the banks of the Mottlau. The size of the vessels grew also. In 1641,
although 964 of 1,741 ships had a capacity less than 50 lasts (about 115 tons),
103 of them were carrying over 150 lasts. Their destinations varied. About half
remained within the Baltic itself, bound for Liibeck, Copenhagen, Stockholm,
Libau, Riga, or Vyborg. The other half sailed through the Sound. The com-
monest run was Danzig-Amsterdam-Setubal or Faro in Portugal, where salt
and wine were taken on for the grain. The longer Mediterranean runs to
Genoa—Leghorn-Venice—Cyprus-Lisbon-Amsterdam; or to the Spanish ports
of Huelva-San Lucas de Barrameda—Cadiz-Malaga-Barcelona-Amsterdam,
flourished in the late sixteenth century, but thereafter gave way to shorter runs,
especially to France or England or just to Amsterdam itself. In the three years
1615-18, one Lisbon merchant, Andres Lopez Pinto, forwarded no less than 200
ships to Danzig, exchanging salt for rye which was thereon transported to
Tangier and Ceuta in North Africa. In later years, typical contracts dealt with
salt cargoes from La Rochelle or Brouage which were exchanged for grain deliv-
ered to Amsterdam. There is some evidence to suggest that on occasion, to avoid
the high duties charged at Danzig, goods were transported overland to Stettin.
On the direct run, however, with a fair wind, the 850 sea miles to Amsterdam
could be covered in a week. The round trip to Portugal took a couple of months
and more. The Mediterranean voyages presumably occupied a full season.
The business of the foreign firms was served by the operations of some five
hundred local merchants. These were almost invariably German Danzigers, reg-
istered in the city and sworn by solemn oath to maintain their corporate rights
and privileges. Their names - Ficke, Krumhausen, Schultze, Czirenberg,
Gawrock, Strobandt, Hewel, Sieuertt, Kinke, Wichman - could be encountered
wherever trade was conducted throughout the Republic. They usually ran small
family concerns, where the patron employed an accountant, or buchalter, one
or two apprentices, or knechte, and a number of agents, or faktor, for travelling
the countryside. They made use of a numerous class of brokers, or makler, who
so lubricated the wheels of trade within the city that in the later seventeenth cen-
tury they were regularly denounced as parasites. The labour force of porters and
stevedores was recruited on the quayside on a piece-rate basis. On occasion, the
c. jardin
(C. Jardin)
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