l magnates were the bankers
of kings and princes.

The methods of transportation and intercourse at that time were very
different from those of to-day. There was no postal service, no
insurance, very sparse circulation of bills, and very little of that
agency--or commission--business, which relegates to a third party the
transportation and management of goods. Trade was very largely a
matter of individual enterprise, demanding in a far greater measure
than to-day the personal superintendence of the merchant. Usually the
latter himself travelled well-armed across sand and sea to distant
lands, trusting in God and upon his strong right arm. As master of a
vessel he did not fail to interest his crew in the safety of the ship
and cargo by allotting to them part of the profits. Indeed, his
journey was far more perilous than it is to-day. Upon the public
highway he was subject to the attack of the robber barons, who held
him prisoner against heavy ransom; and in the innumerable
hiding-places of the rock-bound northern coast his course was followed
by the watch-boats of pirates. The occupations of highway robbery and
piracy were at that time still regarded among wide circles as
excusable. Dozens of feudal castles, the retreats of robber barons,
were destroyed by the soldiers of the municipalities, and dozens of
freebooting vessels were annihilated, the robbers themselves being
executed with axe or sword or thrown overboard. The piracy of that age
reached its acme in the notorious "Society of Equal Sharers" or
"Brotherhood of Victuallers." This consisted of an incongruous
aggregation of noble and plebeian blades, who, despite their excessive
brutality, nevertheless possessed some genuine knightly
characteristics, the hardihood and bravery of the true mariner, and a
boundless love of adventure. Formed during the eighth decade of the
fourteenth century for the purpose of assisting the King of Sweden
against the martial queen Margaret of Denmark, its immediate object at
that time was the supplying of victuals to the beleaguered city of
Stockholm--whence its name. When, upon the surrender of the city and
the establishment of peace, the immediate object of the society had
been fulfilled, the attraction of freebooting proved too strong for
these wild companions, whose excesses now assumed an increasingly
alarming form. For more than a half century they remained the terror
of the northern seas. Almost annually the cities were compell