Ep. 114: The Hanseatic League (1143-1669) - The Economics - The London Steelyard

If like many of you, you are listening to this podcast on your morning or evening commute and you happen to live in London, you may be one of the 20 million souls going through Cannon Street Station every year. Few of them will be aware that under their feet lay the vestiges of the great Hanseatic Kontor in London that goes back to 1176. If people know about the Steelyard, it is mainly through the portraits of merchants painted by Holbein between 1532 and 1536 at a time when the Kontor had only about 60 years left.

But there is a lot to tell about this now vanished building, its inhabitants and trade. It is a story of infighting between the various cities that were still to officially form the Hanseatic league, of trading privileges granted to fund first a crusade and then the hundred year’s war, andit is also a great opportunity to introduce the oldest, largest and richest member of the Hanseatic League, the city of Cologne.

As promised here are my favourite German winemakers (and there are lots and lots more..)

Nahe Valley (exc. value for money)

1. Weingut Dönnhoff (doennhoff.com)
2. Willkommen auf Gut Hermannsberg (gut-hermannsberg.de)
3. Das Weingut Schäfer-Fröhlich: Weingut Schäfer-Fröhlich (weingut-schaefer-froehlich.de)

Rheingau (top quality but expensive)

1. Riesling auf Spitzenniveau | Weingut Schloss Johannisberg (schloss-johannisberg.de)
2. Weingut – Kloster Eberbach (kloster-eberbach.de)
3. Home (sybillekuntz.de)

Moselle/Ahr

1. Weingut Dr Loosen – Weingut an der Mittel-Mosel
2. Home | Weingut Meyer-Näkel (meyer-naekel.de)

Baden

1. Weingut Andreas Laible – Wein mit größter Leidenschaft (andreas-laible.com)
2. weingut-huber.com

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

The 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:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

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To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

The Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs