o-day, by virtue of its incomparably
favorable geographical position, has become the first naval and
commercial power, it was in an economic sense at that time absolutely
dependent upon Germany, which country, after the loss of its political
supremacy, outstripped all other nations in the contest for economic
supremacy--excepting perhaps the Arabians and the republics of
Northern Italy, who controlled the trade in the Orient and the
Mediterranean. Naturally the English merchants were jealous and
frequently brought complaints before their kings and parliaments; but
the latter, despite occasional contentions, ever and again upheld the
foreign invader. The reason is not far to seek: like the kings of the
north, they could not dispense with the silver chests of the Hanseatic
towns and merchants, who on more than one occasion secured their loans
by appropriating the products of the tin mines or the duties on wool,
or by taking in pawn crown and jewels.

It is evident, therefore, that the greatest source of wealth to the
Hansa was this intermediary traffic. Several other important
commercial connections will be touched upon later. Casual mention
should here be made, however, to the trade with Scotland, Ireland,
Brabant, and France, whose annual markets were regularly attended by
the Hansa merchants. While the trade of the cities of the league found
such wide extension abroad, however, the traffic with their nearest
neighbors, the High-Germans, was very weak. Their domestic trade,
indeed, was confined chiefly to the plains of Northern Germany,
extending southward to Thuringia and eastward to the Oder and the
Vistula, where Cracow constituted the last outpost. The great
High-German communities along the Main and the Danube pursued
different political and economic interests. Being chiefly
manufacturing cities, they formed only temporary unions. Dependent
rather upon the south of Europe, they were also differentiated from
their northern brethren by their coinage, inasmuch as they accepted
gold as their standard, whereas the Low-Germans preferred silver
money, especially that of Lubeck. Of course each Hanse town formed the
nucleus of the local intercourse; and thither came noblemen and
peasant to barter the produce of the fields for the merchandise of the
city, and to invest, or probably more frequently to borrow, money.
Lubeck and Bruges were in those days the money centres of Northern
Europe, and their councillors and commercia