The Hanseatic League .... one to listen to ...... today

This is one I will be listening today just after 9 today and then perhaps dipping back to it on catch up.

Ubena von Bremen, a replica of the Bremen cog 

It comes In Our Time, from that wonderful Radio 4 programe hosted by Melvyn Bragg.

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Hanseatic League or Hansa which dominated North European trade in the medieval period. 

With a trading network that stretched from Iceland to Novgorod via London and Bruges, these German-speaking 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. 

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.

With, Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz,Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of Amsterdam, Georg Christ, Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern History at the University of Manchester, and Sheilagh Ogilvie, Chichele, Professor of Economic History at All Souls College, University of Oxford

Producer: Victoria Brignell"

Picture; Ubena von Bremen, a replica of the Bremen cog I, VollwertBIT, 2007, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publishes it under the following license: w:en:Creative Commons attribution share alikeThis file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license. Attribution: I, VollwertBIT

*The Hanseatic League, In Our Time, BBC, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001vshs