It has been now pretty well established that it took its rise from the
fact that on this spot stood the great balance of the City of London,
known as the Steelyard, on which all exported or imported merchandise
had to be officially weighed. It was after the treaty of Utrecht in 1474
that the German factory first took this name, from the circumstance that
its domain was then greatly enlarged. The whole place was defended by a
high strong wall, fortress fashion, and there were few windows towards
the front. This was as a protection from the frequent attacks of the
London mob, and also as a defence against the robbers anxious to
penetrate into a storehouse of riches. The chief building, still called
their Guildhall, was a massive stone structure, of which, until 1851,
some of the main walls still remained. The northern front, which looked
towards Thames Street was especially imposing with its many stories, its
high gabled roof, surmounted by the double eagle of the empire with its
outspread wings. Three round portals, well protected and clamped with
iron, were seen on its northern frontage. The centre one, far larger
than the others, was rarely opened, and the two others were walled up.
Above these three portals were to be read, in later days, the following
characteristic inscriptions:
"HAEC DOMUS EST LAETA, SEMPER BONITATE REPLETA;
HIC PAX, HIC REQUIES, HIC GAUDIA SEMPER HONESTA."
"AURUM BLANDITIAE PATER EST NATUSQUE DOLORIS;
QUI CARET HOC MOERET, QUI TENET HOC METUIT."
"QUI BONIS PARERE RECUSAT, QUASI VITATO FUMO IN FLAMMAM
INCIDIT."
The second of these couplets is attributed to Sir Thomas More,
Chancellor of England, author of the "Utopia," and a good friend to the
Hanseatics. This great hall was used for the meetings of the merchants
and for their common dining-room. At one end was a low tower that served
as depository for the documents and valuables belonging to the merchants
or the factory. Close upon the river stood another strong building, the
dwelling of the house master. Here was the capacious stone kitchen, in
which ample preparations were made for the dinners of week-days and
festivals. Between these two buildings ran the garden, in which the
Germans had planted fruit trees and vines. On summer evenings they were
wont to rest here after the business of the day, while the young people
among them amused themselves with playing at ball or other recreations.
It was a pleasant green spot with cool shady arbours, tables, and seats,
and was frequented, not only by the Hanseatics themselves, but by the
London citizens; for the League had the permission to sell their Rhenish
wines in this spot. Threepence a bottle was the average price.
In "Pierce Penilesse, his application to the devil," we read, "Let us go
to the Stilliard and drink rhenish wine;" and in one of Webster's plays
a character says: "I come to entreat you to meet him this afternoon at
the Rhenish warehouse in the Stillyard. Will you steal forth and taste
of a Dutch brew and a keg of sturgeon?" This garden restaurant was also
famous for its neat's tongues, salmon, and caviar. It would seem that
the place was a favourite resort from the days of Prince Hal and Sir
John Falstaff to those of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, the former the
embodiment of boisterous enjoyment, the latter of chivalric and pedantic
learning. A multifarious and varied company indeed that little garden
harboured in its day, who met in "the Rhenish wine house" to close their
bargains over their wine cups, for festive carouse or serious talk.
There could be seen England's most honoured men; bishops, mayors,
ministers, chancellors, naval and military heroes. Even Shakespeare's
company of actors, London's merriest _gourmets_, are known to have
turned in here. The spot did not lie far off the famous "Boar's Head"
tavern, and Prince Hal's town residence in Cold Harbour Lane abutted
upon the Steelyard. There, too, assembled the grave ambassadors of the
Hanseatics, their delegates and merchants, their apprentices and agents;
a motley crew indeed, who, until the days when the garden in Cosins Lane
perished in the Great Fire of London (1666), constantly frequented the
locality, and helped to enhance its wealth and importance. The memory of
the place was kept up, till quite lately, by a large tavern, bearing the
sign of the Steelyard, which still stood on the same spot, surmounted by
a bunch of golden grapes, similar to those which we so frequently meet
with in the narrow streets of old German towns.
No less busy, no less varied was the inner life of that small state
within a state. A strange little world with its severe monastic
discipline, its semi-religious character. In many rooms and halls, in
warehouses and passages, were crowded a number of masters and men,
assembled here from some sixty Hanseatic cities, busy superintending the
stapled wares which arrived by river and were drawn up by means of the
mighty crane that formed a notable feature in the water frontage of the
factory. Some wares, too, arrived by way of the crooked streets. These
entered the building through the small carefully guarded doorways. As
time went on and there was not room enough for all the guests in the
main building, adjoining houses were rented for the Hanseatics, but all
were subject to the same rigid discipline, and were members of the same
large household. In early days the London merchants had insisted that an
Englishman should be head inspector of the Hanseatic warehouses, but
from this they soon freed themselves, alleging that it was giving the
sheepfold over into the keeping of the wolf. As elsewhere, the
presidency was assigned to an alderman and twelve councillors. These
were chosen from the different towns in rotation. As elsewhere, all
residents had to remain unmarried during the period of this sojourn in
the Steelyard. Not even the house-master was allowed to have a wife. In
later years, a Cologne merchant who had decorated, improved, and
enlarged the garden inn, and turned it into one of the most beautiful
taverns in London, being a resident for life, was anxious to marry. But
so sternly did the League hold by their decree of celibacy for their
absent members, that they only agreed to make an exception in his case
after fourteen members of the English Parliament had signed a round
robin petition to the Hanseatic Diet to this effect. Those who
trespassed against the by-laws of the house as to habits or morals were
heavily fined. If refractory they were often imprisoned, and at times
even the aid of the English constables would be called in. But this was
not frequent. The Hanseatics preferred to manage their own affairs, and
keep themselves distinct from the natives among whom they dwelt. In
criminal cases the jury, as is still the custom in England under similar
conditions, was composed half of Englishmen, half of Germans. At nine
every evening the portals of the various dwelling-houses were closed,
and the key given to one of the masters, who took turns to fill this
office. Whoever played at dice in his room at the tavern, whoever
entertained non-Hanseatics, whoever let a woman cross the precincts of
the Steelyard paid a heavy sum, of which half went to the informant.
Cleanliness was severely imposed both in person and in the use of the
common sleeping and packing rooms. The fine for contravention in this
respect was paid in wax, not in money. It was employed for the candles
which the Hanseatics kept burning on their behalf in the church of All
Hallows the More. Opprobrious language towards one another, blows or
drawing of knives was fined by a hundred shillings paid into the common
fund; a high sum truly if we consider that five pounds sterling was
worth, in the fourteenth century, about four times its present value.
They were even forbidden to fence or to play tennis with their English
neighbours under out paying a penalty of twenty shillings.
Every merchant was bound to have in readiness in his room a full suit of
armour, and all the needful weapons in case of an attack on the
Steelyard, or on the Bishopsgate. For the City of London had ceded to
the Hanseatics this gate, which they had to guard and keep in repair,
relieving them instead of the annual tax towards the preservation of the
town walls known as wall-money, of bridge money, and paving money. They
also managed to obtain special privileges with regard to shipwrecked
goods; the English being obliged to pay them damages provided that
something living, if only a dog, or cat, or cock reached the shore alive
from the shipwrecked vessel. This secured them greatly from the perils
of wanton wreckage.
In London none of those gross manners and customs prevailed that we find
at Bergen or Novgorod. The Hanseatics knew that in England they found
themselves among a people fully their equals, and were careful not to
offend them in any respect. Indeed they did all they could to conciliate
them, and were liberal in presents. Thus the Lord Mayor of London
received from them yearly a cask of the finest sturgeon, or two barrels
of herring, or a hundredweight of Polish wax. An English alderman,
annually chosen to adjust disputes between the natives and the
foreigners, was presented each New Year's Day with fifteen golden
nobles, wrapped up in a pair of gloves, by way of tender consideration
for the feelings of the recipient. The Chief Inspector of Customs
received about twenty pounds sterling, intended probably to make him
indulgent in the exercise of his duties. And so forth, making as a whole
a most goodly sum thus wisely spent in fees and in conciliating those
in power and office. Every point relating to this as well as to the
inner statutes of the factory was most carefully recorded in writing,
and has, in large part, been preserved to us. It is a record of most
quaint regulations, every one of which no doubt had its wise purpose and
scope.
The Hanseatics purchased from the English the produce of their flocks
and tillage, that is to say, wool, strong hides, corn, beer, and cheese.
Wool was from the earliest date one of the chief and most important
articles of their exportation from England. This was sent to Flanders
and the Netherlands to be worked up. It was only later, as the English
learnt to manufacture skilfully this costly produce, that the Hanseatics
exported the finished goods in lieu of the raw material. The details
concerning this wool trade show how many places in England were engaged
in it, and how appropriately the Chancellor of England is seated upon a
wool-sack as symbol of one of the main sources of England's ancient
wealth. So valuable, indeed, was this wool trade that a special tax was
placed upon the wool, a tax which Edward III. repeatedly farmed out to
Cologne merchants for the space of several years in advance in return
for ready cash.
Among the articles imported by the League we find pepper, potash,
various kinds of wood adapted for building ships and making crossbows,
iron and iron utensils, flax, linen, hemp, grease, fish, corn, and
Rhenish wines. We even find that they imported French wines after the
English had lost all their possessions in France with the exception of
Calais. By their means, too, there came to England Italian and Oriental
produce, such as choice spices, perfumes, medicines, metals, figs,
almonds, dates, even gold dust, and jewels, with which they provided
themselves at Bruges.
A very important branch of trade was that in salted cod-fish, or
stock-fish as it was called, an article largely used on the Continent
and in England too in the Middle Ages. With this the English were then
accustomed to feed their troops when on service. Nor were even living
creatures lacking among their cargoes, such as choice falcons from
Norway or Livonia, for which the English nobility, who were then, as
now, passionately addicted to sport, paid high prices.
Indeed, the Steelyard was one of the staple places for the export and
import of all the principal necessaries of life before men had thought
of the products of America.
Nor was London by any means their only depot. It was the chief, but they
also had factories in York, Hull, Bristol, Norwich, Ipswich, Yarmouth,
Boston, and Lynn Regis. Some mention of them is found in Leland's
"Itinerary." Under an invitation to the Hanseatics to trade with
Scotland we find the name honoured in legend and song of William
Wallace. In John Lydgate's poems we also meet with our Hanseatics. In
relating the festivities that took place in London city on the occasion
of the triumphal entry of Henry VI., who had been crowned king at Paris
some months previously, the poet narrates how there rode in procession
the Mayor of London clad in red velvet, accompanied by his aldermen and
sheriffs dressed in scarlet and fur, followed by the burghers and guilds
with their trade ensigns, and finally succeeded by a number of
foreigners.
"And for to remember of other alyens,
Fyrst Jenenyes (Genoese) though they were strangers,
Florentynes and Venycyens,
And Easterlings, glad in her maneres,
Conveyed with sergeantes and other officeres,
Estatly horsed, after the maier riding,
Passed the subburbis to mete withe the kyng."[10]
A love of pomp and outward show was indeed a characteristic of the
Hanseatics in England who thus perchance wished to impress upon the
natives a sense of their wealth. As times grew less turbulent and the
German Guildhall less of a fortress, it was handsomely decorated with
costly paintings and fine carving. Most notable were two large works by
Holbein, who visited England at the invitation of King Henry VIII.,
desirous of emulating his rival Francis I. in protecting the fine arts.
When the painter first came over he lived in one of the quaint houses
that, before the Great Fire, stood on London Bridge, and some of his
earliest works seem to have been two commissions for his countrymen,
whose Steelyard was close by. They were destined to decorate the Great
Hall, and were tempera pictures representing respectively the Triumph of
Poverty and of Riches. When in the days of James I. the Steelyard ceased
to exist as the collective home of the Hanseatics, the towns decided to
present these pictures to the Prince of Wales, Henry, who was a lover of
the arts like his younger brother, Charles I., into whose collection
they passed on Henry's death. Unfortunately, they perished in the great
fire that destroyed Whitehall. Federigo Zuccari, who saw them during his
sojourn in London and appraised them as exceeding in beauty the works of
Raphael, made careful drawings of them, and thanks to these and the
engravings made after them we are in possession of at least an outline
representation of Holbein's work. The pictures are conceived in the
spirit of the age that loved such so-called triumphs in art and poetry.
The figures, chiefly allegorical, were life size and in the richness of
fantasy and learning that they display it is permissible to recognize
the help and advice of Holbein's friend, the Chancellor, Sir Thomas
More. In many cases the names of the personages represented are written
beside the figures, after the quaint method of that time.
[Illustration: THE TRIUMPH OF RICHES, BY HOLBEIN.]
The Triumph of Riches shows a car of Plutus drawn by four white horses,
driven by Fortune and followed by a motley crowd which includes Justice,
Usury, Bona Fides, Sichaeus, the rich husband of Queen Dido, Pythias (of
whom Plutarch tells that he so loved gold that once when he returned
hungry from abroad his wife placed gold before him instead of meats),
and many figures, for the most part culled from the pages of Herodotus,
Juvenal, and other classic authors. In the heads of Croesus and
Cleopatra it is said that Holbein painted likenesses of Henry VIII. and
Anne Boleyn. In a corner of the picture is written the distich ascribed
to Sir Thomas More which we have already met with above the central
portal of the German Guildhall.
The Triumph of Poverty was purely allegorical, and appears to have been
considered less attractive than the former work, whether on account of
its treatment, or on account of its less pleasing theme does not appear.
In this case the car is drawn by two oxen and two asses, designated as
Negligence and Idleness, Greed and Sloth. This canvas, too, bore some
Latin verses from More's pen, which, curiously enough, have not been
incorporated in his collected works.
In all public ceremonies and processions the Hanseatics seem also to
have taken a notable part; as we mentioned above on the occasion of
Henry the Sixth's entry. We come across another detailed account when
Queen Mary went in triumph through London the day before her coronation.
At Fenchurch the Genoese had dressed up a lovely boy as a girl, who was
carried before the Queen and greeted her. The Hanseatics had built up a
hillock in the corner of Gracechurch, whence a fountain poured forth
wine. On this hillock stood four children who likewise greeted the
Queen. In front of the Steelyard they had placed two casks of wine, from
which they poured drink to all who passed. This liberality cost them a
thousand pounds, and heavy payments to cover such expenses are not
infrequent in their account books.
In England, contrary to the usual custom, the Hanseatic League never had
its own church. Perhaps this need was less felt in a land that professed
the same creed than in Russia. The Germans frequented the parish church
of All Hallows, contenting themselves with endowing a chapel, altars,
special masses, and alms. They also presented the church with costly
stained glass windows, in the decoration of which the German imperial
eagle figured conspicuously, and with cunningly-carved stalls reserved
for the use of the Steelyard authorities. As late as the year 1747 these
seats were still in the possession of the master of the Steelyard and
the other representatives of the guild. In front of these stalls there
always burned five of the biggest tapers the church could boast. Indeed
the Hanseatics were famous for their outward observances of piety, both
while they were Catholics and after they, as well as the English, became
Protestants. Of course the Catholic religion made more show. Saint
Barbara was a saint whom they specially affected, and on her day
(December 4th) they caused a most elaborate mass to be sung and
afterwards treated the priest, their English alderman, and the royal
doorkeeper of the Star Chamber to fruit and wine in the Cosin's Lane
Garden. At Corpus Christi they joined the great procession of all the
guilds and notabilities; and on midsummer night, and the eve of St.
Peter and St. Paul, they illumined their Great Hall after the ancient
Saxon fashion with Yule fires and torches. After the Great Fire of
London the League presented All Hallows with a carved oak screen that
ran the length of the whole church. It was the work of a Hamburg carver,
and excites admiration to this day. In the centre it shows the large
imperial eagle, as also the arms of Queen Anne; the main work consists
of twisted columns and arches.
The Germans in England seem to have adopted the purer Protestant
doctrines with great caution, if not tardily. At least we have it on
record, that when in 1526 a commission, headed by Sir Thomas More in
person, proceeded to make a domiciliary search of the Steelyard for
writings of Luther, nothing was found but Old and New Testaments and
German prayer books, while the whole body, both young and old, swore at
St. Paul's Cross that there was not a heretic among them. Soon
afterwards the Reformation was firmly established in England, as it
already was in most of the cities belonging to the League, and from that
time forward the Steelyard associates attended the English Protestant
service in All Hallows Church.
Such were the life, the habits, and the nature, of the German community
that made its English centre in the Steelyard, and which, so long as it
was in harmony with the times, conferred many advantages not only upon
themselves, but upon the people among whom they dwelt. For in thrifty
activity the English in those days could not be compared with the
Hanseatics, while in point of wealth no one could compete with these
Germans, excepting only the Italian money-changers of Lombard Street,
then, as still, a favourite locality of banking houses. But the Italians
were exclusively occupied with financial transactions, while the Germans
devoted themselves exclusively to mercantile affairs.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] "Lydgate's Minor Poems," Percy Society, p. 4.
VIII.
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE.
The notices that have come down to us about the organization of our
League are scanty, although we possess a vast number of minutes
concerning their diets. It is doubtful whether there was even a fixed
mode of governing and government, whether the whole was not rather in a
state of flux controlled by the circumstances of the moment. That
certain traditional modes of administration obtained, however, seems
indisputable. It raises a smile to read that when some problem seemed
insoluble, or some venture proved a failure, our naive Hanseatics
registered in their books, "of this matter let those think who come
after us," thus throwing the burden upon the following generation.
There was no fixed place of meeting for the Hanseatic diets, but most
frequently these were held at Luebeck, because it was situated almost in
the centre of the various activities of the League. The assemblies were
held in "the name of all the cities," and those who failed to send
representatives were begged "not to take it amiss" if conclusions were
arrived at without their sanction. "Every town shall consider the
benefit of the others, so far as is in accordance with right and
honour," runs one of their quaint formulae. "Should strife arise between
the cities, which God forbid, they shall settle their dispute according
to the counsels of the neighbouring towns."
There was also no fixed time for these diets; they were assembled
according to urgency or press of business, but usually they were annual,
and met about Whitsuntide, as that feast falls in the fine weather, when
travelling was easier for the delegates of the northern towns. At the
close of each diet, the deputies present decided on the time and place
of the next meeting, and Luebeck and other leading cities were charged
with the care of making known to the cities unrepresented the decisions
arrived at by the assembly. But default to send a deputy to the diet was
not lightly overlooked. Some excuse had to be given, and the validity of
the excuse was sharply criticized. Sometimes a town might be busy
resisting its temporal or ecclesiastical lords, an internal revolution
might have occupied all its energies, the roads might be unsafe, or it
might have been visited by some public calamity like the Black Death. If
the diet thought that these pleas were merely subterfuges to save the
expense of sending a delegate, or to avoid explaining some infraction of
the rules of the League of which the city in question was guilty, a
heavy money fine was imposed, and in case of absence three times
repeated it might even find itself "unhansed," deprived of all the
pecuniary privileges belonging to members of this powerful association.
By such rigid measures did the League hold its members together. Nor was
this all. A deputy who did not arrive in time for the opening of the
proceedings was fined a gold mark for each day of delay, a fine that was
not remitted unless the causes for his default were found on scrutiny to
be in every way sufficient.