In Germany today there is a special sign of the historical differences, evidence that the seven cities of the State are the custodians of the traditions of the rare in the history of the long-term, mutually beneficial and voluntary coalition.This sign - Latin letter H. It means that the city, which begins with that letter license plates, were part of the Hanseatic League.The letters HB on the license plate should be read as Hansestadt Bremen - «Hanseatic city of Bremen», HL - «Hanseatic city of Lübeck."Letter H is also present in the rooms of car free cities of Hamburg, Greifswald, Stralsund, Rostock and Wismar, playing in medieval Hanse key role.
Hansa - a commonwealth in which XIII - XVII centuries united free German cities to protect merchants and trade from the power of feudal lords, as well as for the joint confrontation pirates.Combining included the cities where living burghers - free citizens, they, unlike the subjects of kings and lords, subject to the rules of "urban rights" (Lubeck, Magdeburg).The Hanseatic League in different periods of its existence consisted of 200 cities, including Berlin and Dorpat (Tartu), Danzig (Gdansk) and Cologne Königsberg (Kaliningrad) and Riga.To develop mandatory for all merchants of rules and laws in Lübeck, which became the main center of maritime trade in the basin of the North and Baltic Seas, Congress members met regularly Union.In a number of European cities that are not members of the Hanseatic League, there were "office" - branches and representative offices of the Hanseatic League, protected privileges against the encroachments of the local princes and municipalities.The largest "office" is located in London, Bruges, Bergen and Novgorod.As a general rule, "the German courts" had their own docks and warehouses, and also have been exempted from most of the fees and taxes.
According to some modern historians, event, give rise to a trade union should be regarded as the foundation of Lübeck in the Hanseatic League in 1159 was a rare example of associations in which all parties work towards a common goal - the development of trade relations.Due to the German merchants in the south and west of the continent received goods from Eastern and Northern Europe: timber, furs, honey, wax, rye.SBPC (sailboats), laden with salt, cloth and wine, went in the opposite direction.In the XV century, the Hanseatic League started to experience defeat after defeat on the national states, resurgent in the zone of economic interests: England, the Netherlands, the Moscow state, Denmark and Poland.Rulers growing countries did not want to lose revenue from exports, so eliminated the Hanseatic trading yards.Nevertheless, Hansa lasted until the XVII century.The most persistent participants actually defunct coalition appeared Lubeck - a symbol of the might of the German merchants, Bremen and Hamburg.These cities in 1630 entered into a three-way alliance.Hanseatic trade union collapsed after 1669.It was then in Lübeck was the last Congress, which became the final event of the history of the Hanseatic League.
analysis of the experience of the first in the history of European economic and trade association, its accomplishments and failures is interesting for historians and for modern businessmen and politicians, whose minds are preoccupied with the problems of European integration.
