England and the German Hanse, 1157-1611 : a study of their trade and commercial diplomacy

The German Hanse was the most successful and most far-flung trade association that existed in medieval and early-modern Europe. Inevitably it appears prominently in every general study of trade, sometimes under the label of 'the Hanseatic League'. This, however, is the first study to be devoted to relations between the Hanse and England throughout the entire period of their contact, which lasted for some 500 years. The relationship between England and the Hanse was based upon commercial exchange, and as a consequence much of this work is devoted to trade. The composition of trade is analysed, and the fluctuations in its volume and value are reconstructed from primary sources, chiefly customs accounts. But trade was often made possible only by intensive political and diplomatic bargaining between the two sides, sometimes at the level of merchant and merchant, at other times between the English government and the Hanse diet, the highest authority within the German organisation. This aspect of the relationship is explored in equal detail. The book also synthesises existing scholarship and makes many original contributions to the study of the Hanse, often by re-examining accepted theories A legal compilation commonly termed the Billingsgate tolls shows that subjects of the Emperor (homines imperatoris) were trading in London about the year AD 1000. T.h. Lloyd. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.