Odd that it disintegrated, especially after so long of a stable existence. Equally surprising was its inability to retain control of the Baltic trade. Its general loss of the North sea trade to England was prehaps inevitable, yet it lost it quite completely, which is surprising. Anyhow, it seems to me to be almost a quirk that it did not survive. Not so much a quirk that it fell apart after losing control of and even a part in virtually all trade, but a quirk that it lost control so completely to begin with. So what do you all think?
I don't know much about it, beyond a general knowledge of a bunch of cities in northern europe that were trading. Got any more info?
I think that the increasing ease of land transportation lowered the importance of the Baltic as a trade route to the Atlantic.
In general yes, but that did not effect the Hansa at all. Real improvement in land transport did not come until the mid 19th century with the advent of the railroad, by which time the Hanseatic league had been defunt for several hundred years. Granted land transport was made grandually safer and more realiable during the time of the Hansa, but this did not have a significant negative impact on the voulme of sea borne trade in the Baltic regions. If anything it would have increased the volume of sea borne trade, as getting goods to and from distant port cities became safer and more certain. p.s. Here is a link to a brief description of the Hanseatic League. http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0822651.html
"A major impetus to the league's development was the lack of a powerful German national government to provide security for trade." "Despite its success, the league suffered from lack of organization." This pretty much sums it up for me. When non-German national governments began to enforce their will in central Europe, the major condition of its success was eliminated. Just too many centralized states were looking to expand into the chaos of the HRE, culminating in the devastation of the 30 years war and subsequent Swedish hegemony. It was a league not a state and just couldn't compete with the resources brought to bear by coherent nations be it English or Dutch navies or Imperial mercenaries bought with New World gold.
What did survive is the notion that capital is portable and that capitalists will vote with thier feet if threatened by heavy taxation or over intrusive regulation. Goverments that get this notion will be hospitable to capital, those who do not will experience impovrishment. It seems that we are always looking for lost knowledge. The notion of hospitabality to traders seems to be lost knowledge.
