The Hanseatic League

This was supposed to be an episode where we talk about the challenges the Hanse was facing after the victory over the Danes and the Peace of Stralsund. But that is not to be. Listeners Mehmet and Nina pointed out a few gaps in what I had been talking about last week and now these need to be filled. 
It is all good talking about the trading network and the flow of goods across the Baltic and northern Germany. But what about the opposing flow, the flow of money? How do the Merchants get paid? How can they pay for all the goods they, or their agents, are buying way down in Flanders and England? How do they cope with the sometimes erratic monetary policies of late medieval rulers?
After all, it is money that makes the world go round!
he music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.
As always:
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This episode relied heavily on:
Jahnke, Carsten: Die Hanse | Reclam Verlag
Jahnke, Carsten: Netzwerke in Handel und Kommunikation an
der Wende vom 15. zum 16. Jahrhundert am Beispiel zweier Revaler Kaufleute. Netzwerke
(hansischergeschichtsverein.de)
Stuart Jenks: War die Hanse kreditfeindlich? on JSTOR
Historical documents of Hanseatic League added to UNESCO archival heritage list | Tallinn

What is The Hanseatic League?

Though the Hanseatic League ended formally in 1669, this medieval associations of merchants still casts a spell. Many cities along the Baltic and North Sea -Lubeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Rostock, Wismar, Riga, Tallin, bergen to name a few are proud to call themselves Hanseatic. But what was it about this organisation (if it even was one) that had no permanent institutions, not even a register of members and started out at the far fringes of the global trading system that feels still so relevant. This podcast series tries to get to the bottom of this.
This podcast is part of the broader History of the Germans podcast that aims to track the history of the German people from the Early Middle Ages to Reunification in 1991. If you enjoy this show, check out any of the other seasons or follow the main show.
So far I have the following seasons:
The Ottonians (919 AD-1024 AD)
Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy (1024 AD-1125 AD)
Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen (1125-1190)
Frederick II Stupor Mundi (1190-1268)
Saxony and Eastward Expansion
The Hanseatic League
The Teutonic Knights
The Holy Roman Empire (1250 AD -1356 AD)
The Reformation before the Reformation (1356AD -1439 AD)
The Empire in the 15th Century
The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs (1439AD -1519 AD)