6 Harreld
Hammel-Kiesow also employs a version of the world system approach to
explain shifts in trade flows. First, by examining coin hoard evidence, Hammel-
Kiesow shows the development of trade routes that connected the two main
regions that would become commercially important for Hanse merchants.
Early German merchant communities operated in Schleswig from which west
and central European and Baltic trades radiated. By the end of the eleventh
century, merchants settled at Lübeck in the Baltic region and in the city of
Cologne in the North Sea region. Second, Hammel-Kiesow situates German
settlement in the Baltic along with the advance of conquest and conversion.
Following these developments, German merchants began a process of settle-
ment eastward into the Baltic region. Germans eventually became enmeshed
in the commercial relations of Scandinavia, Prussia, and farther east.
Also of great importance for this earliest phase of Hanse development was
the shift from traveling trade associations to the eventual development of
Hanse Kontor between about the twelfth to the fourteenth century. The travel-
ing associations had obvious commercial benefits for merchants, and they also
facilitated social functions. Eventually, German merchants, influenced by con-
tact with Italians, developed a system of fixed main office, freight carriers, and
on-site factors. In spite of its more settled nature, this system was still transi-
tory until the development of kontors (early in the fourteenth century) created
a more permanent institutional arrangement.
In chapter 2, “The ‘Golden Age’ of the Hanseatic League,” Jürgen Sarnowsky,
traces the progress of united action on the part of Hanse towns that resulted
in large part as a result of the problems that arose in Flanders in the mid-
fourteenth century and most particularly following the Peace of Stralsund in
- Indeed, because of its success in presenting a unified front, the Hanse
began to exert considerable economic and political influence in Northern
Europe in the second half of the fourteenth century. Though its war with
Denmark threatened to hamper commercial stability, the Hanse’s suc-
cess in the war put it in a particularly strong position following the Peace of
Stralsund (1370).
Sarnowsky points out, however, that in the years following the Peace,
upheaval within the Hanse towns, particularly in Lübeck, threatened the sta-
bility of the Hanse. Only after the constitutional crises were resolved in the
Wendish towns could the Hanse solidify its strength and face the many outside
threats. After about 1418, it was the various territorial lords that posed the great-
est threat to Hanse autonomy and resulted in greater cooperation between the
towns. So, in spite of the periods of unity that followed the Peace of Stralsund
and again later around 1418, the Hanse experienced significant periods of crisis