"The Hansa Towns" by Helen Zimmern. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.
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Helen Zimmern. The Hansa Towns
The Hansa Towns
Table of Contents
PREFACE
STORY OF THE HANSA TOWNS
PROEM
PERIOD I
THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRADE GUILD
FEDERATION
FOREIGN TRADE
THE HANSA FIGHTS
PERIOD II
LÜBECK RECEIVES AN IMPERIAL VISITOR
THE TOWNS IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
THE VICTUAL BROTHERS
THE FACTORY OF BERGEN
THE HANSEATIC COMMERCE WITH DENMARK, SWEDEN, AND RUSSIA
THE COMMERCE OF THE LEAGUE WITH THE NETHERLANDS AND SOUTHERN EUROPE
THE STEELYARD IN LONDON
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE
PERIOD III
INTRODUCTION
STORM CLOUDS
KING FREDERICK AND KING GUSTAVUS VASA
WULLENWEBER
THE HANSA LOSES ITS COLONIES
THE LEAGUE IN THE NETHERLANDS
THE END OF THE HANSA'S DOMINION IN ENGLAND
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR KILLS THE LEAGUE
THE SURVIVORS
EPILOGUE
INDEX
Footnote
Отрывок из книги
Helen Zimmern
Published by Good Press, 2021
.....
The extract given above from the old writer impresses on us a fact we must bear well in mind, namely, that the Baltic mainland littoral at the time the Teutonic merchants began to ply their trade upon its coast was not a German possession, but inhabited and owned by a Slavonic people, who clung to their pagan creed long after their neighbours in the East and West had become converted to the new religion. And, as usual to this day, it was the trader who preceded the missionary, and gave the natives the first idea of a different code of ethics and morality. In the missionary's track, as at this day, followed the soldier, enforcing by the sword the arguments that reason had failed to inculcate. It was thus that German merchants had founded on Slavonic soil the various cities and ports that were later to be the pride and strength of the Hanseatic Union. Nor did they rest content with the coast that bounded their own lands. They traversed the narrow ocean, touching Finland, Sweden, and Russia, and they established on the isle of Gothland an emporium, which, in the first Christian centuries, became the centre of the Baltic trade, and in which "people of divers tongues," as an old writer calls these visitors, met to exchange their products.
A glance at the map will show why this island assumed such importance. At a time when the mariner was restricted to short passages, not liking for long to lose sight of the shore, this spot naturally made a most favourable halting-place on the road to Finland, Livonia, or Sweden. It is evident from the chronicles that the Germans soon acquired and exercised great power in this island, and that they were accorded special privileges. Thus Pope Honorius II. granted them his protection for their town and harbour of Wisby, in acknowledgment of the part they had played in the conversion of the pagan nations.
