The Baltic Trade 227
table 6.4 Tar and pitch transported on the Vistula River
Year Tar and pitch together Ta r Pitch
1463 – (no numbers) – 1524 barrels
1464 9309 barrels 1109 barrels 696 barrels
1465 486 barrels – –
M. Biskup, Handel Wiślany, 181
Metals
Copper
The Baltic Sea area was not only famous for its wood, but also for “its” cop-
per, even if only one of Northern Europe’s important mining areas laid in the
geographic area of the Baltic. To understand this problem, we can glance at
the Hanseatic custom lists from 1362 up till 1370. The noted copper trade in the
Baltic dispersed as follows:
table 6.5 Copper trade in the Baltic, noted in the Custom Lists
Ye a r Sweden (via Lübeck) Hungary (via Thorn) Harz (via Hamborg)
1362/63 – 32.780½ m.l. –
1368 4.500 m.l. – –
1369 5.500 m.l. 9.150 m.l. 1.520 m.l.
1370 – 9.450 m.l. -
K.-O. Ansehl, Thorns Seehandel, 51
As it can be seen, most of the “Baltic copper” came from Hungary, followed
by the export of the Swedish mines.131 The Harz-area in lower Saxony con-
tributed only a small amount to this trade and therefore shall be neglected in
this context.
The term “Hungarian copper” denotes metals from the north-east Slovakian
mining-areas of the Carpathian Mountains, which belonged to the Kingdom of
Hungary. Most of the metals in this area came from the cities of Schmölnitz,
131 K.-O. Ahnsehl, Thorns Seehandel, 51.