216 Jahnke
rose from a minimum of 8,473 lasts in the 1490s to 30,000 lasts in the 1550s up
to 95,000 lasts annually in the 1640s. The Baltic became the main distributor of
grain during this time to the Netherlands.78
More and more, the growing grain-trade of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-
tury developed the potential to destroy the old Hanse and the political and
economical union between the Baltic East and the West. Additionally, the old
Hanseatic trading system was no longer practical for bridging the gap between
Danzig and Amsterdam. Because of this, Hanseatic merchants developed a
new trading system with a strong central and salaried personal at the other
trading places. In this new system, the old flow of money didn’t work any
longer, so the Baltic merchants began to be in need of banks to transfer their
money from the East to the West, a service which had previously been done by
their colleagues and companions.79
Along with grain, hemp became another important export-product from
the Baltic region. Hemp was mainly produced in the area of Novgorod, Pskov,
Smolensk, Polatsk, Livonia, and Prussia.80 This product was primarily used to
produce hemp-rope for ships and thus had an important role in the creation
and maintenance of the Dutch and English navies, at least in the period after
the Navigation Act and the building of the Dutch merchant-fleet. Hemp was
exported in two fashions—as a raw material, pressed in tons, and also as semi-
finished products, called Kabelgarn.81
Beer
Traditionally, Hamburg is known as the Hanseatic house of beer (Bierhaus),
because of its exports to the Netherlands and the long known struggle at the
78 M. van Tielhof, The mother of all trade, 7f; M.-J. Tits-Dieuaide, “Grain trade,” 20.
79 Carsten Jahnke, “Lübeck, der Bankenplatz des Nordens?, Lübecker Banken des 15.
Jahrhunderts als Indikatoren eines neuen Kommunikationsmodells und eines sich aus-
weitenden Handelsraumes.” In Beiträge der Sektion Beschleunigung und Ausdehnung—
Konturen der Bankgeschichte vom 15.–20. Jahrhundert des Historikertages 2004, ed. S. Elkar
aud A. Denzel, Scripta Mercaturia, 149–168; Carsten Jahnke, Die Hanse (Stuttgart: Reclam
2014), 182–208. See also Carsten Jahnke, Mit Strukturen von gestern auf Märkte von mor-
gen? Hansische Kaufleute und deren Handelsorganisation an der Wende vom 15. zum 16.
Jahrhundert, forthcoming.
80 A. Attman, Den Ryska Marknaden, 9ff. and Bilag 2.
81 Paul Johansen and Heinz von zur Mühlen, Deutsch und Undeutsch im mittelalterli-
chen und frühneuzeitlichen Reval (Cologne, Vienna: Böhlau, 1973). Ostmitteleuropa in
Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, xv. Wilhelm Stieda, “Kabelgarn und Steine, zwei Revaler
Ausfuhrartikel.” Beiträge zur Kunde Est-, Liv- und Kurlands 7 (1910), 153–208, here 161–166.