In the 13th and 14th centuries German Hansa merchants dominated North European maritime trade. They created trade settlements abroad and new towns in the Baltic. The Kontor in Bergen was the largest of these settlements and had ca. 1000 residents in winter, increasing to 2000 in summer. Its counterpart was a Norwegian state whose authority declined after 1319. The resulting military, administrative and judicial relations are unique in Northern Europe. The great expansion in the Bergen stockfish trade took place 1250-1320 and declined after the Black Death. Norwegian merchants and state officials found the Kontor presence problematic, but stockfish producing households between Bergen and the Barents Sea saw the trade as a source of economic welfare and better food security.

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Born 1947 Dr. philos. University of Bergen 1983 Professor of medieval history University of Trondheim 1991-1993 Professor of medieval history University of Oslo 1994-2009 Arnved Nedkvitne is professor emeritus of Medieval history from the universities of Trondheim and Oslo. His fields of study have included Norwegian urban history, foreign trade, the economy of coastal communities and pre-modern social organisation.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION 1. Who were the Hansa merchants? 2. Earlier reseach 3. Issues for discussion CHAPTER I THE BERGEN TRADE AND THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION OF THE MIDDLE AGES, 11001350 1. Norwegian foreign trade befor the Hansa merchants a The origins of Norwegian foreign trade b. The English connection c. Continental North Sea ports d. The Baltic connection 2. Hansa merchants take control of trade between Norway and the Baltic a. Gotland and Russia b. The Scania market and its off shoot in Bohuslän c. German ports along the Baltic coast d. Conclusion 3. Trade with England after the Hanseatic expansion a. The expansion of the Wendish towns the chronology b. English customs accounts c. Goods exported from Norway to England d. Goods exported from England to Norway e. Norwegian and German merchants after the Hanseatic expansion f. English merchants g. Quantifying stockfish imports to England h. Local distribution of Bergen fish in England in the 14th century i. Boston emerges as centre of the Hanseatic stockfish trade after 1303 j. Conclusion 4. Trade with continental western Europe after Hanseatic expansion a. The Flemish connection b. Merchants from the Zuiderzee in Norway c. Merchants from Bremen and Hamburg in Norway d. The marginalisation of Westphalian merchants 5. Conclusion CHAPTER II THE BERGEN TRADE IN THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE HANSA, 13501537 1. Lübeck as a staple for Bergen fish in the Late Middle Ages? 2. How important was Lübeck in Bergen's foreign trade from 1518 to 1522? 3. Bergen's Baltic trade a. Bergen Lübeck b. BergenWismar c. BergenRostock d. BergenStralsund e. Between Stralsund and Danzig f. BergenDanzig g. BergenLivonia (Livland) h. BergenSwedish and Danish ports i. Quantifying Bergen's Baltic trade in the Late Middle Ages 4. Bergen's English connection a. The Hanseatic settlement in Boston b. Quantifying the goods of Hansa merchants c. The Hanseatic merchants' home towns d. English merchants e. BergenScotland f. Conclusion 5. Trade between the western European continent and Bergen a. BergenFlanders b. BergenZeeland and Brabant c. BergenZuiderzee d. BergenHolland e. BergenBremen f. BergenHamburg g. Merchants from German inland towns h. Trade routes from Bergen to markets along the Rhine 6. Conclusion: trade routes and merchant groups, 13501537 7. Conclusion: quantifying the goods exchanged 13501537 CHAPTER III THE BERGEN TRADE AND THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION OF THE 16TH CENTURY 1. Quantifying the goods a. Imports b. Exports 2. Trade routes 3. The merchants' home towns CHAPTER IV HOW THE HANSA ACHIEVED ITS DOMINANT POSITION IN BERGEN, 12501380 1. Economic factors a. Landowners and professional merchants in Norwegian foreign trade b. Capital c. Commercial networks d. Specialisation 2. The legal framework in a period of free trade, 12471299 a. Laws, ordinances and privileges b. Developments until the national urban law of 1276 c. Privileges and ordinances in the years 12781299 3. The legal framework in a period of active state legislation, 12991380 a. Shipwrecks b. Prohibitions against sailing further north than Bergen c. Customs duties d. The Crown's right to pre-emptive purchase e. Hansa merchants' legal obligation to sell f. Bans on the export of Norwegian goods g. Price regulations h. Winter residency and the taxation of foreign merchants i. Prohibitions against trading in the countryside j. Prohibitions against Hansa merchants' retail trade k. Prohibitions against guests trading with each other l. Pre-emptive purchase rights which benefi tted the inhabitants of Norwegian towns m. The collapse of the King's trade policy in Bergen, 13191380 4. Why the Hansa merchants prevailed CHAPTER V HOW THE HANSA RETAINED ITS DOMINANT POSITION IN BERGEN, 13661537 1. The Kontor the organisation of the winter residents a. The founding of the Bergen Kontor in 1366 b. The emergence of a Hansa identity among the Bergenfahrer c. The German community at Bryggen as an honour group d. Internal unity through Lübeck's dominance e. Lübeck caught between altruism and self-interest in the Bergen trade f. The Kontor's demographic strength g. The Kontor militia h. The Kontor's extraterritorial jurisdiction i. Judicial confl icts between Germans and Norwegians j. Did the Kontor undermine state power in Bergen? 2. The winter residents' trade with Norwegian customers a. The winter residents' credit system b. The peasant fishermen's trade with Hansa merchants in Bergen c. The role of Bergen and Trondheim citizens in trade with the stockfishproducing regions d. Clerical and secular offi cials' trade between Bergen and the stockfishproducing regions e. Local magnates' trade between Bergen and the stockfish regions f. The Kontor's trade policy and its consequences 3. The winter residents' trade with European ports a. The winter residents' own trade in overseas ports b. The winter residents' trade with Hanseatic summer guests in Bergen 4. The Kontor's policy towards merchants from England and Holland 5. State and Kontor at the close of the Middle Ages a. Baltic and North Sea merchants in Bergen b. Challenges from a stronger state, 15071537 c. The Kontor's response to challenges created internal tensions d. Bergen citizens in foreign trade before the Reformation? e. I ntegration into Norwegian state society, 15381560 CHAPTER VI PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF BERGEN FISH, 11001600 1. Prices a. Stockfish b. Grain products c. Stockfish compared to herring and salmon 2. Consumption and demand a. Food products from animals, fish and grain b. Dried and salted fish before 1370 c. Dried and salted fish after 1370 d. Why did stockfish prices fall compared to the price of saltfish? 3. Production a. Fish resources along the Norwegian coast b. The fl exible peasant fishermen c. Hanseatic grain made Norway larger d. Late medieval fishing communities the fi rst circle of paradise? e. Poverty without progress in the 16th century f. The attitude of the coastal population to the Hansa 4. Could the Hansa obtain political power by creating famine? PERSPECTIVES 1. The commercial revolutions of the Middle Ages and the 16th century 2. Rise and decline of the Hansa's commercial network 3. The Bergen Kontor and the state 4. The consequences of Hansa trade for Norwegian society DEUTSCHE ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Kurze thematische Zusammenfassung Chronologische Zusammenfassung APPENDICES Appendix I: Ships registered in the customs accounts from Ravensere, Hull, Lynn and Boston 130349, with a cargo from Norway Appendix II: Ships registered in the English customs accounts 13501500, with a cargo from Norway Appendix III: Skippers, merchants and values registered in the Lübeck Pfundzoll as departing for or arriving from Bergen 13681400 Appendix IV: Home towns of skippers reg…