Editing Hanseatic League (section)

=== Commercial expansion ===
{{further|Baltic Slavic piracy}}

[[File:Haupthandelsroute Hanse.png|thumb|Main trading routes of the Hanseatic League]]

The League succeeded in establishing additional ''[[Kontor]]s'' in [[Bruges]] ([[County of Flanders|Flanders]]), [[Bryggen]] in [[Bergen, Norway|Bergen]] (Norway), and London (England) beside the [[Peterhof (Novgorod)|Peterhof]] in Novgorod. These [[trading post]]s were institutionalised by the first half of the 14th century (for Bergen and Bruges)<ref name="Hammel-Kiesow2"/>{{rp|page=62}}<ref name="Sarnowsky"/>{{rp|page=65}} and, except for the [[Kontor of Bruges]], became significant [[enclave]]s. The London ''Kontor'', the [[Steelyard]], stood west of [[London Bridge]] near [[Upper Thames Street]], on the site later occupied by [[Cannon Street station]]. It grew into a walled community with its warehouses, [[weigh house]], church, offices, and homes.

In addition to the major ''Kontors'', individual ports with Hanseatic trading outposts or factories had a representative merchant and warehouse. Often they were not permanently manned. In [[Scania]], Denmark, around 30 Hanseatic seasonal factories produced salted herring, these were called ''vitten'' and were granted legal autonomy to the extent that Burkhardt argues that they resembled a fifth kontor and would be seen as such if not for their early decline.<ref name = "Burkhardt"/>{{rp|pages=157–158}} In England, factories in [[Boston, Lincolnshire|Boston]] (the outpost was also called Stalhof), [[Bristol]], Bishop's Lynn (later [[King's Lynn]], which featured the sole remaining Hanseatic warehouse in England), [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]], [[Ipswich]], [[Newcastle upon Tyne]], [[Norwich]], [[Scarborough, North Yorkshire|Scarborough]], Yarmouth (now [[Great Yarmouth]]), and [[York]], many of which were important for the Baltic trade and became centers of the textile industry in the late 14th century. Hansards and textile manufacturers coordinated to make fabrics meet local demand and fashion in the traders' hometowns. Outposts in [[Lisbon]], [[Bordeaux]], [[Bourgneuf, Charente-Maritime|Bourgneuf]], [[La Rochelle]] and [[Nantes]] offered the cheaper Bay salt. Ships that plied this trade sailed in the [[Bay Fleet|salt fleet]]. Trading posts operated in Flanders, Denmark-Norway, the Baltic interior, Upper Germany, Iceland, and Venice.<ref name="Burkhardt"/>{{rp|pages=158–160}}

Hanseatic trade was not exclusively maritime, or even over water. Most Hanseatic towns did not have immediate access to the sea and many were linked to partners by river trade or even land trade. These formed an integrated network, while many smaller Hanseatic towns had their main trading activity in subregional trade. Internal Hanseatic trade was the Hanse's quantitatively largest and most important business.<ref name="Burkhardt"/>{{rp|pages=153, 161}} Trade over rivers and land was not tied to specific Hanseatic privileges, but seaports such as [[Bremen]], Hamburg and [[Riga]] dominated trade on their rivers. This was not possible for the [[Rhine]] where trade retained an open character. Digging canals for trade was uncommon, although the [[Stecknitz Canal]] was built between Lübeck and [[Lauenburg]] from 1391 to 1398.<ref>{{cite book
 |last= Weststrate
 |first= Job
 |title= Handel en transport over land en rivieren
 |trans-title=Trade and transport over land and rivers
 |url= {{google books|plainurl=yes|id=T5e68QReeykC|page=145}}
 |page=145
}} in {{harvnb|Brand|Egge|2010}}</ref>{{rp|pages=145–147, 158–159}}

====Major trade goods====

{| class= "wikitable floatright"
|+Imports and exports, 18 Mar 1368 – 10 Mar 1369<br />(in thousands of Port Lübeck marks)
|-
!Imports!! !!Origin, Destination!!Exports!! !!Total!!%
|-
|150|| ||London/Hamburg|| 38 || ||188 || 34.4
|-
|44|| ||Livonian towns:|| 51 || || 95 || 17.4
|-
| || 10 || Riga || || 14 || ||
|-
| || 34 || Reval (Tallinn) || || 14.3 || ||
|-
| || -||Pernau|| || 22.7 || ||
|-
|49.4 || || Scania || 32.6 || || 82|| 15
|-
|52 || || Gotland, Sweden|| 29.4|| || 81.4|| 14.9
|-
|19 || || Prussian towns:|| 29.5|| || 48.5|| 8.9
|-
| || 16|| Danzig|| || 22.8|| ||
|-
| || 3|| Elbing|| || 6.6|| ||
|-
|17.2|| ||Wendish & Pomeranian <br />towns:|| 25.2|| ||42.4|| 7.8
|-
| ||5.5|| Stettin|| || 7|| ||
|-
| || 4|| Stralsund|| || 7.5|| ||
|-
| || 2.2|| Rostock|| || 4.6|| ||
|-
| || 5.5|| Wismar || || 6.1|| ||
|-
|4.3 || || Bergen|| – || || 4.3|| 0.8
|-
|3 || || Small Baltic ports|| 1.2|| || 4.2|| 0.8
|-
|338.9|| || Total || 206.9 || || 545.8 || 100
|}

Starting with trade in coarse woolen fabrics, the Hanseatic League increased both commerce and industry in northern Germany. As trade increased, finer woolen and linen fabrics, and even silks, were manufactured in northern Germany. The same refinement of products out of the cottage industry occurred in other fields, e.g. etching, wood carving, armor production, engraving of metals, and  [[Woodturning|wood-turning]].

The league primarily traded beeswax, furs, timber, resin (or tar), flax, honey, wheat, and rye from the east to [[Flanders]] and England with cloth, in particular [[broadcloth]], (and, increasingly, [[final good|manufactured goods]]) going in the other direction. Metal ore (principally copper and iron) and herring came south from Sweden, while the Carpathians were another important source of copper and iron, often sold in [[Toruń|Thorn]]. Lubeck had a vital role in the salt trade; salt was acquired in Lüneburg or shipped from France and Portugal and sold on Central European markets, taken to Scania to salt herring, or exported to Russia. [[Stockfish]] was traded from Bergen in exchange for grain; Hanseatic grain inflows allowed more permanent settlements further north in Norway. The league also traded beer, with beer from Hanseatic towns the most valued, and Wendish cities like Lübeck, Hamburg, Wismar, and Rostock developed export breweries for hopped beer.<ref name="Jahnke2010">{{cite book
 |last= Jahnke
 |first= Carsten
 |title= 7. De Hanze en de Europese economie in the middeleeuwen [''The Hanseatic League and the European economy in the Middle Ages''] 
 |url= {{google books|plainurl=yes|id=T5e68QReeykC|page=45}}
 |page=45}}
 in {{harvnb|Brand|Egge|2010}}</ref>{{rp|pages=45–61}}<ref name="Heidbrink2012">{{cite book
 |last= Heidrink
 |first= Ingo
 |editor1-last= Talley
 |editor1-first= Wayne K.
 |title= The Blackwell Companion to Maritime Economics
 |date= 2012
 |edition= 1st
 |type= hardcover
 |chapter= The Business of Shipping: An Historical Perspective 
 |chapter-url= {{google books|plainurl=yes|id=I_Uu4_VRDXUC|page=35}}
 |language= en
 |location= 
 |publisher= Blackwell Publishing Ltd, John Wiley & Sons
 |isbn= 978-1-4443-3024-3
}}</ref>{{rp|pages=35–36}}<ref name="Montgomery2016">{{cite book
 |last= Montgomery
 |first= John
 |title= Upwave: City Dynamics and the Coming Capitalist Revival
 |date= 2016
 |edition= reprint
 |type= hardcover
 |url= {{google books | plainurl=yes | id=4MKXCwAAQBAJ | page=72}}
 |location= Abingdon-on-Thames, New York
 |publisher= Routledge
 |isbn= 978-1-317-00409-7
}}</ref>{{rp|page=72}}<ref name="hansentnhn">{{cite book
 |first= Lars Ivar
 |last= Hansen
 |chapter= The Trading Networks of the High North during the Sixteenth Century
 |editor1-first= Sigrun Høgetveit
 |editor1-last= Berg
 |editor2-first= Rognald Heiseldal
 |editor2-last= Bergesen
 |editor3-first= Roald Ernst
 |editor3-last= Kristiansen
 |title= The Protracted Reformation in the North
 |language= English
 |publisher= Walter de Gruyter
 |date= 2020
 |isbn= 9783110686210
 |chapter-url= {{google books | plainurl=yes | id=Fkn2DwAAQBAJ | page=144}}
}}</ref>{{rp|page=141}}<ref name="Jahnke2015"/>{{rp|pages=207–233}}

====Economic power and defense====
The Hanseatic League, at first the merchant hansas and eventually its cities, relied on power to secure protection and gain and preserve privileges. Bandits and pirates were persistent problems; during wars, these could be joined by [[privateers]]. Traders could be arrested abroad and their goods could be confiscated.<ref name="Hibbert"/> The league sought to codify protection; internal treaties established mutual defense and external treaties codified privileges.<ref name="Hammel-Kiesow2"/>{{rp|page=53}}

Many locals, merchant and noble alike, envied the League's power and tried to diminish it. For example, in London, local merchants exerted continuing pressure for the revocation of privileges.<ref name="Sarnowsky"/>{{rp|pages=96–98}} Most foreign cities confined Hanseatic traders to specific trading areas and their trading posts.<ref name="Burkhardt"/>{{rp|pages=128, 143}} The refusal of the Hansa to offer reciprocal arrangements to their counterparts exacerbated the tension.<ref name="North"/>{{rp|pages=105–111}}

League merchants used their economic power to pressure cities and rulers. They called embargoes, redirected trade away from towns, and boycotted entire countries. Blockades were erected against Novgorod in 1268 and 1277/1278.<ref name="Hammel-Kiesow2"/>{{rp|page=58}} Bruges was pressured by temporarily moving the Hanseatic emporium to Aardenburg from 1280 to 1282,<ref name="Hammel-Kiesow2"/>{{rp|page=58}}<ref name="Henn2010">{{cite book
 |last= Henn
 |first= Volker
 |title= Het ontstaan van de Hanze [''The coming into being of the Hanseatic League''] 
 |url= {{google books | plainurl=yes | id=T5e68QReeykC | page=19}}
 |page= 19
}} in {{harvnb|Brand|Egge|2010}}</ref>{{rp|pages=19–21}} from 1307 or 1308 to 1310 <ref name="Henn2010"/>{{rp|pages=20–21}} and in 1350,<ref name="Brand2010"/>{{rp|page=29}} to [[Dordrecht|Dordt]] in 1358 and 1388, and to [[Antwerp]] in 1436.<ref name="Sarnowsky"/>{{rp|page=68, 80, 92}} Boycotts against Norway in 1284<ref name="Brand2010"/>{{rp|page=28}} and Flanders in 1358 nearly caused famines.<ref name="Sarnowsky"/>{{rp|page=68}} They sometimes resorted to military action. Several Hanseatic cities maintained their warships and in times of need, repurposed merchant ships. Military action against political powers often involved an ''ad hoc'' coalition of stakeholders, called an alliance (''tohopesate'').<ref name="Brand2010"/>{{rp|pages=32, 39–40}}<ref name="Sarnowsky"/>{{rp|pages=93–95}}

[[File:Kõpu tuletorn Hiiumaal.jpg|thumb|Kõpu Lighthouse in Hiiumaa]]

As an essential part of protecting their investments, League members trained [[pilot (harbour)|pilots]] and erected lighthouses,<ref>{{Cite book
 |last= McKenna
 |first= Amy
 |title= Denmark, Finland, and Sweden
 |publisher= Britannica Educational Publishing
 |date= 2013
 |isbn= 9781615309955
 |page= 186
 |url= {{google books | plainurl=yes | id=af-cAAAAQBAJ | page=186}}
}}</ref> including [[Kõpu Lighthouse]].<ref>{{Cite book
 |last= Ebelt
 |first= Thomas
 |title= Lighthouses of Europe
 |publisher= Bloomsbury Publishing
 |date= 2018
 |isbn= 9781472958754
 |page= 35
 |url= {{google books | plainurl=yes | id=sZNyDwAAQBAJ | page=35}}
}}</ref><ref name = "Hibbert"/> Lübeck erected in 1202 what may be northern Europe's first proper lighthouse in [[Falsterbo]]. By 1600 at least 15 lighthouses had been erected along the German and Scandinavian coasts, making it the best-lighted coast in the world, largely thanks to the Hansa.<ref>{{Cite book
 |last= Stevenson
 |first= D. Alan
 |title= The World's Lighthouses: From Ancient Times to 1820
 |publisher= Courier Corporation
 |date= 2013
 |isbn= 9780486157085
 |url= {{google books | plainurl=yes | id=9fO7AQAAQBAJ | page=24}}
}}</ref>