FIRST TRADE UNION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3244, 17 May 1916, Page 71

FIRST TRADE UNION.

A GREAT GERMAN COMBINE. The ETanseatio League of German cities, which during the Middle Ages controlled the commerce of North-western Europe. has been called the first trade union, and Inasmuch as it was a federation formed in the first pla<4 to resist the tyranny and exactions of fen.Hl princes and nobles, and land and sea pirates, the name is not inapt. Tt may be said t& bar-' (vriginoted in 1241, when Hamburg an/! Lnbeek bound themselves together for niutn.nl defence in nn age of political chaos in Germany, though the Eeeds had boon sown through

many years of growing commerce and alliances between wealthy merchants trading far afield. The peoples of Europe were in this period beginning to assert themselves in opposition to the arbitrary feudal rulers, who hitherto had met with no effective resistance, and for long the result was mainly a growing lawlessness and general confusion and anarchy. Old authorities were being undermined ; new ones were not yet established; and rulers, nobles, and petty lordlings were too busy quarrelling and fighting ' among themselves to preserve order and maintain industry and trade within the bounds of their authority. The cities of North Germany, which had been steadily increasing in prosperity and power, realised that both prosperity and power were at stake in the disruption thatthreatened, because of the insecurity of trade at home and the loss of that political prestige which had enabled their merchant citizens to establish and maintain great trading centres in other lands. Hence it was that at first mercantile associations for mutual support and protection were formed, then a league of cities to maintan respect for German power abroad, while securing peace and safety of travel and transport, and withstanding the exactions and blackmail of feudal nobles at home. —Political Power.— The Hanseatic League, as it came to be called (from hansa, a defensive alliance), gradually absorbed other associations, and drew in "many notable cities, thus becoming strong enough in time to stand against State"and Church, and make its own political and commercial terms. It stood, as it were, between the tyranny of feudalism on the one hand and the tyranny of the Church on the other, holding both in check, yet often preventing destructive violence of the people in opposition to the one, and strengthening the hands of the other when its activities tended to the promotion of peace and civilisation. About 85 cities belonged to the league at one time or other, with Lubeck as the capital, but the number varied. Towns joined and withdrew at different times, many because they could not fulfil the conditions and perform the duties demanded by Hansa law. Others were expelled for asserting themselves overmuch, and were readmitted only after great humiliation and the exaction of severe penalties. As, in addition to this, the Hansa merchants kept their organisation and methods as secret as possible-, it is difficult to discover the number of cities included in the league at any given time. They were arranged in four groups, with Lubeck, Cologne, Brunswick, and Dantzic as centres; but at one period the Hansa Diet met at Lubeck every third year, and Lubeck law, which won widespread respect and fame, held throughout the league. It is matter for marvel that with all the power that it obtained and exercised with a strong hand in northern Europe, pulling down one ruler and setting up another, and keeping kings and princes in awe, the league did not establish itself a great political entity dominating all northern Germany, and at least make its cities independent, self-governing communities. But its ambitions seem to have been essentially commercial, and the Hansa merchants apparently desired political power only for the furtherance of these ambitions, unlike their more cultured and refined Italian rivals who established the famous trading republics of the Mediterranean. A State Within a State.— Yet without formal recognition as a political power, the league became a sort of State within a State having its own financial system and courts of justice, maintaining power within itself by strict discipline, and enforcing its decrees by war if necessary on the rulers and States with which it had dealings. Thus, for example, in the fourteenth century Bremen was expelled because one of its merchants traded with Flanders when such' trade was for the time forbidden, and for 30 years after suffered the penalty in stagnation and ruiri. And King Waldemar of Denmark, who defied the league and invaded the island of Gothland, where was Wisby, the Great Northern Hansa emporium, sacking and plundering the city, saw his own coasts similarly ravaged by Hansa ships, and finally lost his crown in consequence of defeat. In view of revelations of modern German methods and ideas, it is instructive to note some of the rules regulating the foreign relations of the Hanseatic merchants. They spared no pains in establishing permanent and thriving trading settlements in foreign countries, and obtained for them certain rights of self-government according to the laws of their native land; but no such privileges were allowed to foreigners in Hanse towns. In Cologne, for example, no foreign merchants might remain for more than six weeks at a time, and this not more than thrice yearly : and similar restrictions were made in other cities of the league, no foreign settlement being permitted. When English and Dutch traders began to compete with the Hanseatics, the latter, determined to retain their full privileges and monopolies, compelled Denmark to put an interdict on English trade, and Norway to direct all its merchandise to Bergen, that the Hanse merchants there might have the first choice and be able to control the market. And when, having obtained -possession of the mouths of all the Great Baltic rivers and established harbours and Hanse depots on them, the league practically possessed the Baltic, it kept out competitors by a further decree that no German merchant might enter into partnership with any Englishman, Russian, or Fleming. Trading Settlements.— The chief Hanse trading settlements or "factories" in other coutries were those at London, Bruges, Bergen, and Novgorod. before the league itself Avas formed German merchants had established themselves in London, their first foreign settlement, and as far back as the tenth century their E-hips enjoyed the same rights in our ports as British vessels, for which they paid in kind, according to the custom of the time,

the goods mentioned being brown and grey cloth, men's gloves, pepper, and vinegar. Tho rich Teutonic merchants helped our earhy kings in many financial difficulties, receiving in return privileges and monopolies which English people naturally resented very strongly, especially as they had no corresponding privileges abroad. The Steelyard, as the London Hanse depot was finally named, situated on the Thames, and surrounded by the wharves, warehouses, and dwellings of the Hanse people, practically dominated the trade of the city, which was nearly all carried on by river. The Bishopsgate entrance to the city was also held by the Hanseatics, and they were responsible for guarding tho gate and keeping it in repair. Other Hanse depots were established in other parts of the country, and the league was able to exert an enormous influence over English trade and industry. At Bruges also—which city for three centuries was the great central mart of Central Europe, where merchants from all parts met and bartered —the Hanse merchants played a great and dominant part, compelling every vessel to put into the port and give them the first choice of its merchandise. Here, as at Bergen and London, it controlled the market and obtained various monopolies, and through the factory at Novgorod it in the same way obtained and held possession of trading rights in connection with Arctic and Byzantine routes and produce. Decline and Renascence. — But at last its power bsgan to decline, and various causes contributed to the collapse of this famous and influential federation. The discovery of America and the Capo of Good Hope diverted trade into new channels, -while the rivalry of England and Holland for sea-borne commerce and that of South German States for inland trade made serious reductions in Hanse merchants' wealth and power. Queen Elizabeth broke up the league in England, expelling the merchants and their followers from tho Steelyard, and its hopes of being reinstated came to nothing. James I, indeed, allowed German merchants living in England to resume possession of the Steelyard (which they held until 1853), but Hanse policy had destroyed Hanse privileges and opportunities once for all, and the history of the league in England ended with the reign of Elizabeth. Its power on the Continent gradually declined during the Thirty Years' War, and after the conclusion of peace in 1648 it was too enfeebled to rise again. The three towns, Lubeck, Hamburg, and Bremen, formed a new alliance, which, with modifications, survived to our day. They remained "free cities," with independent institutions, and as such are States of the German Empire. They were also free ports, with a sort of free trade, until Lubeck in 1867, Hamburg and Bremen in 1888, entered the German Zollverein (Customs Union) and relinquished the last of their old Hanse privileges —and thus perished the last fragment of the glory of the Great League. But this old federation of German merchants and cities has an imperishable memorial in the contribution it made to liberty and industrial and intellectual development in the dark ages of European history. In spite of its narrow commercialism, which never blossomed into real culture or art, as did that of the Italian cities, the Hanseatic League made a bold stand against feudal tyranny and violence, religious intolerance, and industrial and political slavery, and for this modern Europe must remain forever its debtor.