In modern Germany, there is a special sign of historical distinction, evidence that the seven cities of this state are the keepers of the traditions of a rare long-term, voluntary and mutually beneficial coalition in history. This sign is the Latin letter H. It means that the cities in which car numbers begin with this letter were part of the Hanseatic League. The letters HB on car numbers should be read as Hansestadt Bremen - "Hanseatic city of Bremen", HL - "Hanseatic city of Lübeck". The letter H is also present on the license plates of the free cities of Hamburg, Greifswald, Stralsund, Rostock and Wismar, which played a key role in the medieval Hansa.
Hanse is a commonwe alth in which free German cities united in the XIII-XVII centuries to protect merchants and trade from the power of feudal lords, as well as to jointly resist pirates. The association included cities in which the burghers lived - free citizens, they, unlike subjects of kings andfeudal lords, obeyed the norms of "city law" (Lubeck, Magdeburg). The Hanseatic League in various periods of its existence included about 200 cities, including Berlin and Derpt (Tartu), Danzig (Gdansk) and Cologne, Königsberg (Kaliningrad) and Riga. To develop rules and laws binding on all merchants in Lübeck, which became the main center of maritime trade in the basin of the North and B altic Seas, a congress of members of the union met regularly.
In a number of European cities that are not members of the Hansa, there were "offices" - branches and representative offices of the Hansa, protected by privileges from the encroachments of local princes and municipalities. The largest "offices" were in London, Bruges, Bergen and Novgorod. As a rule, the "German courts" had their own berths and warehouses, and were also exempt from most of the fees and taxes.
According to some modern historians, the foundation of Lübeck in 1159 should be considered the event that initiated the creation of a trade union. The Hanseatic League was a rare example of an association in which all parties strove for a common goal - the development of trade relations. Thanks to German merchants, goods from Eastern and Northern Europe arrived in the south and west of the continent: timber, furs, honey, wax, rye. Koggi (sailboats), loaded with s alt, cloth and wine, went in the opposite direction.
In the 15th century, the Hanseatic League began to experience defeat after defeat from nation-states,resurgent in the zone of his economic interests: England, the Netherlands, the Muscovite state, Denmark and Poland. The rulers of the countries that were gaining strength did not want to lose their export earnings, so they liquidated the Hanseatic trading yards. However, the Hansa lasted until the 17th century. The most persistent members of the virtually collapsed coalition turned out to be Lübeck, a symbol of the power of German merchants, Bremen and Hamburg. These cities entered into a tripartite alliance in 1630. The Hanseatic trade union collapsed after 1669. It was then that the last congress took place in Lübeck, which became the final event in the history of the Hansa.
Analysis of the experience of the first trade and economic association in the history of Europe, its achievements and miscalculations is interesting both for historians and for modern entrepreneurs and politicians whose minds are busy solving the problems of European integration.
