ful commercial union of the middle ages was the
Hanseatic League. To protect their commerce, the cities of Hamburg and
Lubeck formed about the middle of the thirteenth century an alliance for
mutual defense. The advantages derived from this union attracted other
towns to the confederacy. In a short time about eighty of the largest
cities lying between the Baltic and the Rhine joined this famous league,
which in time became so formidable that its alliance was courted and its
enmity was dreaded by the greatest monarchs. The League divided its
territory into several districts. Its members, like railway associations
of the present day, made their own laws, and met for this purpose at
regular intervals in the city of Lubeck. The original object of the
League, mutual assistance against outside attacks, was soon lost sight
of, and its constantly growing power was used to obtain still greater
commercial privileges in the adjoining countries, and even to force
their rulers to concede to its members a commercial monopoly. In 1361 a
controversy arose between the League and the King of Denmark, which led
to a long and bitter war between them. This war was participated in by
no less than seventy-seven cities on the part of the League. It
terminated in 1370, leaving the Hansa master of the situation. For many
years after this the League exerted its power in Denmark, Sweden and
Norway, and the rulers of these countries were compelled to respect the
wishes and even submit to the orders of these proud merchants. The
countries bordering on the Baltic Sea remained the domain of the League
for several centuries. They gathered there immense quantities of raw
material, which they sold in the various ports of Europe. The influence
of the League even reached as far as Novgorod in the east and London in
the west. In both cities the League had its quarters, and within them it
virtually exercised the right of sovereignty. Its main market was at
Bruges in Flanders, which was then a bee-hive of industry and thrift.
There the Italian traders came with the products of the east, such as
spices, perfumes, oil, sugar, cotton and silk, to exchange them for the
raw materials of the north. While taxes and imposts everywhere else
harassed merchants, commerce was free in the cities of Flanders, owing
to the liberality, or rather shrewdness, of her rulers. In Bruges the
members of the Hansa met the merchants of Venice on equal terms, and the
exchange of the pro