Section 194. THE HANSE[1]. I.
Reading edition
Section 194. THE HANSE[1]. I.
About the end of the twelfth century commerce began to extend towards the north of Europe. Along the German shores of the Baltic (S. 36, N. 7, A) sprang up[2] thriving towns, which sent out ships to (S. 72, N. 4) Russia, Norway, England, and other parts, and exchanged the raw materials which they thus acquired (S. 48, N. 6) for the merchandise of Southern Europe and the Levant, which reached them both by land and sea[3]. Before[4] the middle of the thirteenth century, this trade had become so valuable as to excite[5] the rapacity, not only of numerous pirates who infested[6] the seas, but[7] of princes (S. 3, N. 2) and nobles, who exacted arbitrary and excessive tolls.
To defend their interests against these assailants, the chief[8] ports entered into a league, binding themselves[9] to [zu] afford mutual aid and protection. Lübeck and Hamburg stood at the head of this association; Bremen ranked next[10]; and one after another the principal towns gave in their adhesion, the movement spreading from east to west[11]. The numbers of the league[12] fluctuated, but at one time it is known (S. 4, N. 4, man) to have comprised more than ninety different towns. In the fourteenth century its authority[13] extended greatly, for[14] it rallied around it the chief commercial towns of the interior, such as Cologne, Dortmund, Münster, Brunswick, Magdeburg, etc. The Hanse had for its object the protection and development of commerce, the maintenance of existing and the acquisition of new privileges[15]. The association was governed by a Diet[16], to which each town sent representatives, and which met once in three years[17] in Lübeck. As the confederation expanded, it became necessary to divide it into several provinces[18], of which the capitals were Lübeck, Cologne, Brunswick, and Dantzic.