208 Jahnke
amber from the “Svevician Sea”, which was part of the later Prussian Sambia, to
Rome.41 This trade continued uninterrupted until medieval times.42
In the high Middle Ages the local dukes of Pomerelia monopolized the
trade in amber for ducal regalia.43 This practice continued unchanged when
the Teutonic Order occupied Pomerelia between 1240 and 1260. Later in the
fourteenth century the possession of raw amber was forbidden to all Prussians.
All amber collected by the subjects of Order had to be delivered to the local
Bernsteinmeister (master of the amber), who had to collect the material and
had to send it further to the Großschäffer in Königsberg. The Großschäffer of
the Teutonic Order in Königsberg pulled the strings of the whole amber-trade
in the Baltic area and it was his ambition to sell the raw material for the best
price possible.44 The prohibition of the possession of raw amber and the com-
mercial interests of the Order implied that amber was not processed in Prussia,
but was exported instead.45 In the course of time the Großschäffer concen-
trated the trade with amber in three cities: in the east in Lviv,46 at the Baltic
coast in Lübeck and in the west in Bruges,47 where he bought Flemish cloth
and other luxury products.
The trade with Lviv went via Thorn. At this place and in Lviv clerks of the
Großschäffer, the so called Lieger, sold the raw material to local merchants and
those from Armenia, Genoa, Venice, Russia, and Tatars, and bought eastern
41 A. Bliujienė, The Northern Gold.
42 See for example P. Petrequin, C.W. Beck, J.F. Pningre, P. Hartmann and S.R. de Simone,
“L’importation d’ambre Balte: un échantillonnage chronologique de L’est de la France,”
Revue Archéologique de L’Est et du Centre-Est xxxviii, Fasc. 1–2 (1987), 273–284.
43 Wilhelm Tesdorpf, Gewinnung, Verarbeitung und Handel des Bernsteins in Preußen
von der Ordenszeit bis zur Gegenwart. Eine historisch-volkswirtschaftliche Studie,
Staatswissenschaftliche Studien, I. Band, 5. Heft, 7. ( Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1887).
44 Fritz Renken, Der Handel der Königsberger Großschäfferei des Deutschen Ordens mit
Flandern um 1400, Abhandlungen zur Handels- und Seegeschichte, Band V (Weimar:
Böhlau, 1937), 38.
45 See the source-edition Schuldbücher und Rechnungen der Großschäffer und Lieger des
Deutschen Ordens in Preußen, especially vols. 1–2. Großschäfferei Königsberg, ed. by
Jürgen Sarnowsky, Christina Link and Joachim Laczny (Cologne: Böhlau 2008 and 2013).
Veröffentlichung aus den Archiven Preussischer Kulturbesitz, vol. 62, 1–2, Quellen und
Darstellungen zur Hansischen Geschichte, vol. lix, 1–2.
46 The amber-trade with Breslau and Liegnitz is not investigated until now. See Jan A. van
Houtte, “Ambernijverheid en paternostermakers te Brugge gedurende de xive en xve
eeuw.” In the same, Essays on medieval and early modern economy and society, Symbolæ,
facultatis Litterarum et Philosophiæ Lovaniensis, Series A, Vol. 5, 49–80 (Leuven:
University Press, 1977), here 53 note 21.
47 Renken, Handel, 42ff.