Part 167

In Russia the Hanse found a valuable and most virgin field for its commercial enterprises. Thence it drew large supplies of timber, flax, hemp, ropes, skins, furs, wax, and tallow; bestowing in return (for the trade was only one of barter), salt, herrings, and coarse cloth, for the mass of the peasants; and brocades, jewels, wines, and other articles of luxury, for the wealthy boyards and princes. A factory at Novgorod conducted these transactions. Another factory at Bergen placed the Hanse in direct contact with Norway and Sweden. This was an establishment of considerable magnitude, comprising twenty-two courts, and serving not only as a lodging for the staff of agents and clerks, but as a warehouse for the goods. The chief exports from this quarter were timber, resin, sperm oil, and, above all, salted fish—a (S. 53, N. 9) commodity in great demand at a time when Europe was still Catholic and fasted faithfully on the appointed days. The Hanse had two other large factories, one in Bruges, employing three hundred agents, and another in London.

Year by year the Hanse grew more rich and powerful. New branches of business were opened up, new factories were founded. Kings and princes were glad to be on good terms with so influential a body. Ambassadors from the Kings of England, France, Sweden, and Denmark, and even from the Emperor himself, waited on the Diet, to ask favours, and to offer trading privileges in return. The original object of the league—mutual protection—was reasonable and legitimate, but was gradually expanded into a policy of forcible aggression and imperious monopoly. Not only were foreigners, in their voyages to (S. 72, N. 4) the Hanse towns, compelled to employ Hanseatic ships, but the commerce of the north-east and west of Europe was almost exclusively in the hands of the league.

and most virgin field = and hitherto quite unused field.

+beziehen+, insep. comp. irr. v. tr.

bestowing in return = Liter. which it (+sie+, to agree with +die Hansa+) for (+gegen+) ... exchanged. The verb stands, of course, after ‘princes’, and the clause ‘for — barter’ is best placed after it.

Repeat the preposition +gegen+ here.

Place ‘in — contact’ after ‘Sweden’.

for — clerks, +den Beamten und Unterbeamten+, which place after ‘only’. Render ‘as a’ by +zu+, contracted with the dat. of the def. art.

= but was also used as a (+als+) warehouse.

+bestanden aus+.

= but especially. The prep. +aus+ must be repeated here.

+Artikel+, m.; in — demand, +welcher ... in großer Nachfrage stand+.

Supply the adv. +noch+ here.

+Von Jahr zu Jahr.+

+froh+; to be on good terms, +auf freundschaftlichem Fuß stehen+; with — body, +mit dem mächtigen Städtebunde+, which place after ‘glad’.

= appeared before (+vor+).

+erbitten+; favours, +Gunstbezeugungen+; in return, +dafür+.

+zu+; of — monopoly, +der Gewaltherrschaft und des Monopols+; ‘to expand’, here +umgestalten+.

+auf+.

but ... was, +sondern es befand sich auch+; of = in.

Section 196.

THE HANSE.

III.

There were no bounds to its greed and selfishness. It did its utmost to crush all growing trade, navigation, and even manufactures, which in the least interfered with its gains. It warned away all strangers from the Baltic; and when it found them there, it seized and destroyed their vessels. In order to maintain this monopoly, it was ready to make the greatest sacrifices, to equip fleets, and sustain long and costly campaigns. With Denmark it waged a desperate war; and it also came into collision with Sweden and Norway. From these contests it came off victorious, and the whole of Scandinavia was compelled to acknowledge its commercial supremacy. It had a rupture also with the Netherlands, whose flag it banished from the Baltic.

These unbounded pretensions naturally excited a great deal of ill feeling against the Hanse, and, in the end, proved fatal to it. One after another, the markets which it had been accustomed to regard as its own private estates, threw off their allegiance, and admitted the traders of other nations. Then it was that the league began to suffer in another way from its narrow-minded selfishness. As long as it had exclusive command of foreign sources of supply, it did not trouble itself to develop the resources of Germany—indeed it rather endeavoured to repress them, when it thought that others were likely to profit by them; but when one by one its monopolies exploded, it found reason to repent that it had neglected to cultivate the productive powers of its own country.

These causes, combined with the change of route to India, led to the gradual decline of this famous confederation; and at the last general assembly, held at Lübeck in 1630, the deputies from the several cities appeared merely to declare their secession. In a modified form, however, the Hanse lingered on till the beginning of the present century—the shadow of a great name. The Free Cities of Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen, and Frankfort-on-the-Maine, are now only nominally the representatives of the Hanse.—J. H. FYFE.

= Its greed and selfishness had no bounds.

to crush all growing trade, +allen Handel ... im Keime zu ersticken+; the adj. ‘all’ must be repeated before the two following nouns.