FIRST TRADE UNION.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 181, 9 June 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

FIRST TRADE UNION.

A GliliAT GEHJIAN COMBINE. The Hanseatie League of German cities, which during the Middle Ages controlled the commerce of NorthWestern Europe, has been called the first trade union, and inasmuch as it was a federation formed in the first place to res St the tyranny and exactions of feudal princes and nobles, and land and sea pirates, the name is not inapt.

It may l>c said to have originated in 1241. when Hamburg and Lubeck liouiid themselves together for mutual defence in an age of political chaos in Germany, though the .-eeds had been sown through many years of growing commerce and alliances between wealthy merchants trading far afield. The peoples of Europe were in til's 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 contusion and an arehy. Old authorities were being undermined ; new one* were not yet established; and rulers, nobles, and petty lordlings were too busy quarrell ng and fighting among themselves to pre serve order and maintain industry and trade within the bounds of their au thority. 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 that threaten, ed, because of the insecurity of trado at home and the lo;s of that political prestige which had enabled their merchant citizens to establish and mainlain 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 maintain 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 bp called (from hanso. a defensive : 1lianc?), gradually aljsorhed 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 ol the other when its activities tended to the promotion of peace and civilisation.

About eighty-five cities belonged to the League at one time or other, with Lubeck as the capital, hut the number varied. Towns joined and withdrew at different times, many because they could not fu'fil the conditions and perform the duties demanded by Hansa law. Other- were expelled for assorting themselves overmuch, and wore re-ad-mitted only after great humiliation and tli.i exaction of severe penalties. As, in addition to this the Hansa merchants kept, their organisation and m; thods as secret ns possible, it is difficult to d'scover the number of cities included in the League at any given time. They wore 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 exerr seel with a strong hand : n northern Europe, pulling down one ruler and sotting up another, and keeping kings and princes in awe, the League did not establish itse'f a gre«it political entity dominating all northern Germany, and at least make its c tics independent, .self-governing communities. But, its ambitions seem to have often 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 Republics of the Mediteri anean. £% J ~ I ' Vi A STATE WITHIX A STATE.

Vet without formal recognition as a political power, the League became a sort of State within a State, having its own financial system and counts if 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 11th century Bremen was expelled because one of its merchants traded with Flanders when such trade was for the t'nie forbidden, and for thirty years suffered the penalty in stagnation and ruin. And King Waldetnar of Denmark, who defied the League and invaded the island of Gothland, where was Wi-hv. the Great Xorthern Han-a emporium, sacking ami plundering the city, saw his own coasts similarly ravaged by Hansa ships. and finally lost his crown in consequence of defeat. In vew of revelations of modern German methods and idea*, it is instructive to note some of the ru'es regulating the foreign relations of the HanseaUc merchants. They spared no pains in establishing permanent and thriving trading settlements in fore : gn conntrie*. and obtained for them certain rights of self-government according to tin- laws of their native land, but no fuch privileges were allowed to foreigners in Hanse towns. In Cologne, for example, 110 foreign inercliaut might remain lor more than *ix weeks :,t a t'nie. and this not more than tlu"ce yearly, and similar restrictions were mad ■ in other citie* el the League, no foreign settlement being permitted. When English and Dutch traders began to compete with the Hunseat s tl.e latter, determined to retain the r full priv leges and monopolies, composed Denmark to put an interdict «>n trade, and Xorway to direct all it.-; merchandise to Bergen, that H'o | lan* ■ merchants there might have the lirst choice and be able to control the market. And when, having obtained pit-session of the mouths ol all 'he (;,< a 1 I'-aitie river■> and < -tahlished i arbours and llan<e depots nil tlieui. 1 it.League practically possessed the 1 alti<*.lt kept out competitors by a further decree that no German merchant might enter into partnership with any Englishman. Rtisfi'an, or Fleming.

TRADING SETTLEMENTS. The chief Hanse trading settlements or " factories' in other countries wore at London, Bruges, Bergen, aim Novgorod. Long before the League itformed German merchants had established themselves in London, tlieir linst foivgn settlement, and as far back as the 10th century their ships rno\ed tiie same rights in our ports as kin i VCSS r ot ' wlllch 'thev paid in kind, according to the custom of the t me, the goods mentioned being brown and grey c'otii men's gloves, popper ch'int"! 6^" ') ric ' l Teutonic .ieriinnh"' carly k n » naiiv financial difficulties, receiving in reu-'i privileges and monopolies which English people naturally resented vcrv strongly, especially as they had no <V responding privileges abroad. The the , London Hanse depot )as finally named, situated on the I names, and surrounded by the tl e hS Wal ' eh ? uses - and dwellings of ed It fr r pl f' P ractical| y dominut(tl V trade ot the city, which wis uearly all carried on by' river. The Biblii psgate entrance to the city wa , also held by the Hanseatics, and thev were responsible for guarding the "ate and keeping it ;n repair. Other }\m*> d.pots were established in other ; trts " he country, and the League u,s able to exert an enormous ntlu-.iv 01 er English trade and industry. At Bruges also—which city for three ft!nt Ur fi was thc groat central mart of ill 1 op ° ; " llere merchants from "11 part, met and bartered-the Hanse Int mrt" P ye(l „ a great and do»"'nt nt2\. tonipcl ns ever >' VC6S£> l into the port and give then, the I" st choice of its merchandise. Here as at Bergen and London, it the market and obtained various monopolies, and through the factory a t nn°r) g l° r 'u 11 m the sume w «y obtained and held possession of trading rights in connection with Arctic and Bvlantine iontes and produce.

decline and rexascexce. But at last its power began to deno, and various causes contributed to the collapse of this famous and influential federation. The discovery of Ainenca and the Capo of Good Hope dnertod trade into new channels, wluh the rivalry of England and Holland ior seaborne commerce and that of South German States for inland trade inado serious reductions in Hanse merchants wealth and power. Queen Elizabeth broke up the League in England, expelling the merchants and their followers from the Steelyard, and its hopes of being reinstated came to nothing. James 1., indeed, allowed German merchants living in England to iCMime of the Steelyard (which they held unt.l 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, a / ter tlld conclusion of peace in 1648 it was too enfeebled to rise again lho 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 L Mich are States of the German Empire, iney were also free ports, with a Min of tree trade, until Lubeck in 1807, Hamburg and Bremen in 1888 entered tile German Zolleverein (Customs I nnn) and relinquished the last of their old Hansj privileges—and thus perished the last fragment of the glory of the Great League, Hut this old federation of German merchants and cities has an imperishable memorial in 111? contribution it macb to liberty and industrial and T-ntallectanfl deve'opiiient 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 vio : enco, religious intolerance, and industrial and political slavery, and for this modern Europe must, remain forever its debtor.