In Our Time: The Hanseatic League

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Hanseatic League, or Hansa, which dominated north European and Baltic trade in the medieval period. With a trading network that stretched from Iceland to Germany and from England to Norway, Hansa merchants benefitted from tax exemptions and monopolies. Over time, the Hansa became immensely influential as rulers felt the need to treat it well. Kings and princes sometimes relied on loans from the Hansa to finance their wars and an embargo by the Hansa could lead to famine in a ruler's realm. Eventually, though, the Hansa went into decline with the rise in the nation state's power, greater competition from other merchants and the development of trade across the Atlantic