Dr. oec. Assoc. Prof. Viesturs Pauls Karnups
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The Hanseatic League
(Hansa) was formed around
the middle of the 12th
century by German seafaring
merchants.
Since there were no navies to
protect their cargoes, no
international bodies to
regulate tariffs and trade,
and few ports had regulatory
authorities to manage their
use, the merchants banded
together to establish tariff
agreements, provide for
common defense and to
make sure ports were safely
maintained.
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In 1241 the German towns of Lübeck and
Hamburg concluded a pact providing joint
control of the route between the Baltic and the
North Seas.
The union was strengthened in 1252, when
commercial treaties were negotiated with the
region of Flanders.
Other mercantile leagues of German towns
gradually accepted the hegemony of Lübeck and
its allies, and the Hansa League came into
existence.
Hanse was a medieval German word for "guild,"
or "association," derived from a Gothic word for
"troop," or "company."
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Throughout the 13th century, the Hanseatic
League remained an organisation of merchants.
To be more exact, it was an organisation of
German merchants.
Merchants who were not German and did not
belong to the Hansa (so-called non-Germans
were forbidden from joining the League) faced
severe trade restrictions in the Baltic.
The Livonian towns refused to permit direct
trading between foreign merchants within their
walls.
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The Hanseatic League began to evolve into a network
of towns around the turn of the 14th Century.
It became a "powerful compact of cities" in the 14th
Century, "with far-reaching trade agreements and
almost total control of North European trade."
In 1280, Lübeck and Visby united to secure peace
along the trade routes to Gotland (Sweden) and
Novgorod (Russia).
This was the beginning of the city Hansa.
Two years later, Riga joined them, and become the
first Hanseatic City in Livonia.
Tallinn was the next Livonian city to join the group.
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The original network, which linked Lübeck, Westfalia,
Saxony and Gotland, quickly spread east with the conquest
of Livonia in the early 13th century.
The league became so profitable and so powerful that it
lasted over three centuries.
At its peak, the Hanseatic League covered the entire North
Sea and Baltic Sea Regions and it stretched hundreds of
miles inland along rivers from the Rhine to the Daugava.
Though Hansa relations were primarily economic in nature,
the League also became a formidable political and military
power in subsequent centuries.
The Baltic Region that is known today as Estonia, Latvia
and Lithuania became a viable economic unit in the world
market and participant in European politics via the
relationships fostered by the Hansa.
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One by one, the cities in Livonia joined the
Hanseatic League.
Estonian cities which belonged to the Hanseatic
League at some point in the history of the League
include: Tallinn (Revel), Pärnu (Pernau), Tartu
(Dorpat), Viljandi (Fellin), Narva, Haapsalu,
Rakvere, and Paide.
Latvian cities belonging to the Hansa included
Riga, Cēsis (Wenden), Ventspils (Windau), Kuldiga
(Goldingen), Valka (Walk), Valmiera (Wolmar),
Limbazi (Lemsal), Koknese (Kokenhusen), and
Straupe (Roop).
Livonia had its own Hanseatic parliament (diet).
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On the whole Estonian and Latvian cities
reaped huge benefits from Hanseatic trade.
Their connections to the Hansa were stronger
than Lithuanian contacts because there was a
large proportion of Germans in Livonia.
Not all of Hansa's effects were rosy -- the
local population of Livonia slowly became
subject to German feudal lords, who
demanded rent from peasants and sold their
surpluses to merchants in the cities for profit.
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 Harbours
of
Tallinn, Pärnu
and Riga from
Novgorod
 Traditional
roads and
rivers
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The Eastern Baltic provided large quantities of
grain to European merchants, but the
majority of the products coming out of Riga
were shipbuilding materials such as flax for
sail-making, hemp for ropes, timber from the
Daugava Basin and the upper course of the
Dnepr and wax.
From Russia, furs, leather, wax and rye were
exported through the Livonian cities.
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In 1346 the Hanseatic League granted the right of
emporium to Riga, Tallinn and Pärnu.
The right of emporium entitled the city to demand
that all goods destined for Russia be unloaded,
weighed and reloaded when passing through the city.
The idea behind this law was that merchants would
be encouraged to sell their goods in Riga rather than
bothering to reload them.
As a result, only one sixth of the goods that went into
Riga as late as the 18th Century went on to other
cities.
A similar law was passed in Tartu, requiring
merchants to unload their goods and offer them for
sale for a minimum of four days before they could
move on.
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In today’s Lithuania, the Hanseatic
League had a kontor in Kaunas
(Kovno).
 In today’s Russia, Kaliningrad
(Königsberg) was a Hansa city, whilst
there were kontore at Poskov (Pleskau)
and Novgorod, which was the main
trading centre.
 There was also a kontor at Polotsk in
today’s Belarus.
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Main trading routes of the Hanseatic League
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The earliest written reference of Narva is in the First
Novgorod Chronicle, which in the year 1172 describes a
district in Novgorod called Nerevsky or Narovsky konets
(yard).
According to historians, this name derives from the name
of Narva or Narva River and indicates that a frequently
used trade route went through Narva, although there is no
evidence of the existence of a trading settlement at the
time.
The favourable location at the crossing of trade routes and
the Narva River was behind the founding of Narva castle
and the development of an urban settlement around it.
The castle was founded during the Danish rule of northern
Estonia during the second half of the 13th century, the
earliest written record of the castle is from 1277.
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A town developed around the stronghold and in 1345
obtained Lübeck City Rights from the Danish king,
Valdemar IV.
The castle and surrounding town of Narva became a
possession of the Livonian Order in 1346, after the Danish
king sold its lands in Northern Estonia.
Trade, particularly Hanseatic long distance trade remained
Narva's raison d'être throughout the Middle Ages.
In the second half of the 14th century, Narva received the
right to set up warehouses in locations on the trade route
between the Hansa league and Russia
However, due to opposition from Tallinn, Narva itself never
became an important part of the Hanseatic League and
also remained a very small town – its population in 1530 is
estimated at 600–750 people.
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Valmiera and its surroundings have been one of
the longest-inhabited regions of Latvia.
Archeological evidence indicates the site was
inhabited 9,000 years ago.
Valmiera was first mentioned as a town in a
chronicle dating back to 1323.
The actual founding of the town probably
occurred at least 40 years earlier when the
master of the Livonian Order Wilken von Endorp
constructed a castle (Wolmar) and Catholic
church on the banks of the river Gauja.
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Because Russia was an important trade source,
Hansa moved to the east.
Valmiera, being on the international
thoroughfare from Western Europe to the major
Russian towns of Pskov and Novgorod, became
a member of the Hanseatic League in 1365.
Valmiera, which was also located at the
geographical centre of Livonia, held more than
30 meetings of Hansa representatives between
1385 and 1500, deciding on economic issues
relating to the Hanseatic League.
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The Hanseatic city seal with
the coat of arms of Valmiera
is in the center of the coin's
obverse. Its left side reflects
an element of St. Simanis'
Church interior, while its
right part bears some details
of the Vidzeme brooch.
The coin's reverse is divided
into two parts by a water
body. At the top of it, there
is a silhouette of St. Simanis'
Church with the name
VALMIERA semi-circled above
it on the right. A reflection of
the ship of Hanseatic days
with semi-circled inscription
HANSEATIC CITY below it is
at the bottom of the reverse.
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The Hansa Wall is a mural enhancing house facades in the centre
of Valmiera, created as a reminder of the city’s medieval
heritage, which has virtually all been lost. It includes a fragment of
a 1570 map by Abraham Ortelius, a picture of a cog — the
characteristic means of transport in the heyday of the Hanseatic
League, and the earliest coat of arms of Valmiera, preserved in the
form of an impression from 1524.
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In the 11th and 12th centuries, the region
around Cēsis was populated by the
Lettigalians and Livs of Vidzeme.
Their lands were known as Idumeja and
Tālava.
From 1237 to 1561 Cēsis developed into one
of the major centres of German power in the
Baltic, as it became the capital of the Livonian
Order and its Master’s residence.
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Due to its location near the Gauja trade route, the
city flourished in the late 14th and early 15th
centuries and in 1367, the city joined the
Hanseatic League.
Cēsis organised special events for the Hanseatic
cities of Livonia.
On several occasions, the city hosted the Livonian
Landtag.
Cēsis was the place where Western European and
Russian merchants traded.
The city mint, erected in the late 15th century,
produced shillings and phennigs.
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The Hanseatic coat of
arms of Cesis is featured
in the centre. A pattern
of Gothic ornaments is
placed to right and the
pointed arch to the left of
the central motif.
The Cesis Castle, topped
by the inscription CESIS, is
depicted in the upper
part. The reflection of a
Hanseatic ship is featured
in the lower part. The
inscription HANZAS
PILSETA (Hanseatic city) is
placed in a semicircle
beneath it.
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The heyday of the Hanseatic League lasted through the 15th
Century.
The chief reasons for the decline of the Hanseatic League was
the development of new social and national structures in Europe.
By the 16th Century internal dissension, curtailment of freedom
by the German princes, growth of centralised foreign states and
consequent loss of Hanseatic privileges, advances of Dutch and
English shipping, and various changes in trade all operated
against the league.
The Baltic cities profited from increased competition between the
Hansa, the Nordic Union (Scandinavian merchants) and Dutch
traders on the Baltic Sea.
The Age of Exploration finally drew world trade away from the
Baltic in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The Diet of the crippled Hanseatic League had its final meeting
in 1669.
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