Hanseatic League. The first trade and economic association in the history of Europe

There is a special sign in modern Germanyhistorical differences, evidence that the seven cities of this state are the custodians of traditions rare in the history of a long-term, voluntary and mutually beneficial coalition. This sign is the Latin letter H. It means that the cities where car numbers start with this letter were included in the Hanseatic League. The letters HB on car plates should be read as Hansestadt Bremen - “Hanseatic City of Bremen”, HL - “Hanseatic City of Lübeck”. The letter H is also present on the numbers of cars in the free cities of Hamburg, Greifswald, Stralsund, Rostock and Wismar, which played a key role in the medieval Hanse.

Hansa is a community in which in XIII - XVIIFor centuries, free German cities united to protect the merchants and trade from the power of the feudal lords, as well as to jointly oppose the pirates. The association included the cities in which the burghers lived - free citizens, who, unlike the subjects of kings and feudal lords, were subject to the norms of "urban law" (of Lübeck, Magdeburg). During the various periods of its existence, the Hanseatic League included about 200 cities, including Berlin and Dorpat (Tartu), Danzig (Gdansk) and Cologne, Königsberg (Kaliningrad) and Riga. In order to work out rules and laws binding on all merchants in Lübeck, which became the main center of maritime trade in the basin of the North and Baltic Seas, a regular meeting of the Union members was held.

В ряде европейских городов, не являющихся членами Hansa, there were "offices" - branches and representative offices of the Hansa, protected by privileges from the encroachments of local princes and municipalities. The largest "offices" were located in London, Bruges, Bergen and Novgorod. As a rule, "German Courts" had their own moorings and warehouses, and were also exempted from most of the fees and taxes.

According to some modern historians,The foundation of Lübeck in 1159 should be considered an event that initiated the creation of a trade union. The Hanseatic League was a rare example of unification, in which all parties sought a common goal - the development of trade relations. Thanks to German merchants, goods from Eastern and Northern Europe came to the south and west of the continent: timber, furs, honey, wax, rye. The Koggis (sailboats), laden with salt, cloth, and wine, went in the opposite direction.

В XV веке Ганзейский союз начал испытывать defeat after defeat of national states that are reviving in the zone of its economic interests: England, the Netherlands, Muscovy, Denmark and Poland. The rulers of the countries gaining strength did not want to lose export revenues, so they eliminated the Hanseatic trade courtyards. However, the Hansa lasted until the XVII century. The most enduring members of the coalition that was actually broken up were Lubeck, a symbol of the power of the German merchants, Bremen and Hamburg. These cities in 1630 entered into a tripartite alliance. The Hanseatic Trade Union collapsed after 1669. It was then that the last congress took place in Lübeck, which became the final event in the history of the Hansa.

Analysis of the experience of the first in the history of Europetrade and economic association, its achievements and miscalculations are interesting both for historians and for modern entrepreneurs and politicians whose minds are busy solving the problems of European integration.