Hanseatic League

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Hanseatic League. The league was a trading alliance which, at its height, included 200 towns, of which the most important were Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne, and Danzig. Founded in the 13th cent., it survived until the 17th and exercised great naval and diplomatic, as well as economic, power. The German word hanse meant a guild or company. Its London base, the Steelyard, was just west of London bridge, until closed by Elizabeth I in 1598. Other kontore were at Bergen, Novgorod, and Bruges. There was a vigorous trade with Scotland and the east coast ports: Boston imported furs and timber and exported cloth, and a Hanseatic warehouse survives at King's Lynn. The decline of the Hanse in the 16th cent. was caused partly by internal rivalries, by the growth in power of Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, and by strong economic competition from the Dutch.

J. A. Cannon

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