10 Harreld
on goods produced in the Baltic “economic zone” which included regions far
inland from the Baltic.
The Hanse merchant trading in the Baltic was not simply a “monolithic
wholesaler,” rather he was a diversified enterpriser. This is made clear by
Jahnke’s presentation of the wide array of products that merchants traded in
the Baltic. These included Baltic produced goods like amber, cereals, herring,
and beer. But Hanse merchants also moved goods through the Baltic that origi-
nated in the hinterland, like wax, furs, timber, and metals, to name only the
most important goods. So the Baltic traders that Jahnke describes were multi-
faceted entrepreneurs.
We might say that a consensus has been building in Hanse history over that
past decades that suggests that all aspects of the Hanse were multifaceted
without the kind of hierarchies so much of the earlier scholarship proposed.
The genesis of this volume was the growing need for a jumping off point for
an international audience of scholars interested in Hanse history that would
bring readers “up to speed” on new research. The contributions to this vol-
ume, then, attempt to engage readers with both the historical narrative and
the methodological and theoretical approaches to the study of the Hanse. The
contributors represent the latest generation of Hanse scholars, and hopefully
point the way for young scholars to engage in the subject. The work being done
by younger scholars is not only promising, but will surely yield more volumes
such as this one in the coming years as even more discoveries are made about
the history of the Hanse.
Indeed, the entire field of Hanse history has been taken in new directions
during the past twenty years as the hurdles scholars encountered during the
Cold War have been removed. Archives are far more accessible than they were
for a previous generation of Hanse scholars,25 and the study of Hanse history
has begun to attract a broader group of practitioners. It is now relatively com-
mon to find scholars of Hanse history not only in Germany, but also through-
out Europe and North America. This expansion will enrich our knowledge of
the Hanse.
25 Lennart Bes, Edda Frankot, and Hanno Brand, eds., Baltic Connections. Archival Guide to
the Maritime Relations of the Countries around the Baltic Sea (including the Netherlands)
3 Vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2007).