186 Ewert and Selzer
fostered a tight bond between the Hanseatic merchants.58 Cultural identity
also appeared in marriage patterns, festivities, and law habits. As the munic-
ipal law of Lübeck became predominant in the Baltic, almost all Hanseatic
merchants acted on the grounds of a commonly known and practiced law,59
despite coming from different towns. Given all of this, merchants that spoke
the same language and were often also closely related to each other were
present all across the Baltic. This made finding ways to organize commercial
exchange easier.
Therefore, culture was important within the core partnerships of mer-
chants, that is, in commercial exchange with relatives and friends. Cheating
or betraying a family member or a friend not only meant losing a particular
mutual transaction relationship, it was also likely a reason of being excluded
from the entire network. Cultural bonds of network members were continu-
ously revived by institutions and social events which enabled network mem-
bers to socialize with each other. The previously mentioned Artus courts or the
Zirkelgesellschaft are good examples of such institutions. The meeting halls of
these societies were places where business information was exchanged and
commercial transactions were arranged. Members, usually the city’s rich mer-
chants and political leaders, came together with guests from other towns and
celebrated festivities which helped facilitate all kinds of business exchanges.
Like culture, trust was also important for coordinating network activities,60
especially because it was essential to cooperation whenever traders were
not members of the same family. The network pattern is commonly called a
“total-trust” organization, thereby putting it in sharp contrast to the model
of a “zero-trust” bureaucratic-hierarchical organization in which control is
achieved by instructions.61 Trust between Hanseatic traders usually increased
when a mutual relationship endured a long period of time. By reciprocity of
58 Dick E.H. de Boer et al., eds., ‘... in guete freuntlichen nachbarlichen verwantnus und
hantierung.. .’. Wanderung von Personen, Verbreitung von Ideen, Austausch von Waren
in den niederländischen und deutschen Küstenregionen vom 13. bis 18. Jahrhundert,
Oldenburger Schriften zur Geschichtswissenschaft, vol. 6 (Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und
Informationssystem der Universität Oldenburg, 2001).
59 Ebel, Lübisches Kaufmannsrecht (see footnote 40).
60 Tanja Ripperger, Ökonomik des Vertrauens. Analyse eines Organisationsprinzips (Tübingen:
Rainer Hampp Verlag, 1998); John Child, “Trust—The Fundamental Bond in Global
Collaboration,” Organizational Dynamics 29 (2001), 274–288; Chris Grey and Christina
Garsten, “Trust, Control and Post-bureaucracy,” Organization Studies 22 (2001), 229–250.
61 Michael I. Reed, “Organization, Trust, and Control: A Realist Analysis,” Organization
Studies 22 (2001), 201–228, 203.