The German Hanse as a Distant Mirror

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The German Hanse as a Distant Mirror

• Rudolf Holbach
• Cloth production, Hanseatic cloth trade and trade
  policy
• (14th to 16th century)

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Hanse Globalization before Globalization(Rolf
Hammel-Kiesow)

• technological progress in transport and
  production
• ? greater density of economic contacts
• ? spacious cross-border trade
• urban network economy of merchant families
• ? confidence and mutuality
• ? early system of certification
• ? the right of complaint
• 3. economy of interrelationship
• ?equal, consensually deciding partners
• ?political and legal power

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North-west European Cloth production 13th to
15th centuries

• new small and rural craft centres
• new landscapes of production (Holland, England)
• diversification of goods
• Pirennes view
• victory of a rural free capitalism over an urban
  corporative economy
• Modern view
• similar conditions for the production in towns
  and countryside
• supplement of urban and rural products
• ability to adaptation and innovation
• strategies for survival in towns

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Hanseatic cloth trade

• 14th/15th centuries
• Higher amount of cloth trade by the Hanse
• Traditional Flemish cloths as important export
  products
• Great part of products made in Brabant, Hainaut,
  Rhineland

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Hanseatic cloth trade

• Adjusting to new economic conditions
• Increasing trade with Dutch and English cloth in
  the 15th century
• Collective contracts of delivery with small
  places in Flanders

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Problems in cloth trade

• Problems
• Bad quality of products
• Fake products (Imitation)
• Increasing trade by Dutch and English merchants
  with cloth

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Hanseatic measures of control and protection

• Cloth trade
• ?Complaints, regulation and prohibition
• ?Strengthening of the Kontor in Bruges as
  staple and as control authority ? Dutch cloth
• ?
• ?
• Resistance of producers and dealers outside
• Disagreement and different interests among the
  members of the Hanse
• Cloth production
• ? Adaptation of Dutch cloth production

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Relationship between cloth producers and the
Hanse as a distant mirror

• Greater density of economic contacts and
• spacious cross-border trade
• ?
• New balance between individual players on a
  regional and supra-regional level
• Development of competition
• ?
• Exchange of know-how
• Innovative energies

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Relationship between cloth producers and the
Hanse as a distant mirror

• Network oriented economy of reliable trading
  partners with a system of certifications and
  guarantees
• ?
• ?
• Increasing dispersion and diversity of production
• Egoism and profit-seeking of the players
• Dependance on long-lasting common interests of
  the main participants
• Difficulties in adjusting

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Relationship between cloth producers and the
Hanse as a distant mirror

• Economy of interrelationship among partners with
  equal rights who made decisions consensually
• ?
• ?
• Weakness in the course of time
• Great number of members
• Differing economic interests
• ? Slowness
• ? Divergences

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Relationship between cloth producers and the
Hanse as a distant mirror

• Regional and supraregional competition
• ability of adaptation and dynamics of creativity
  on low-wage and high cost sites on a globalized
  market.
• difficulty to take the lead and to hold the
  position in a complex European economy with many
  participants
• slowness in making and differences in carrying
  out decisions