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University of Groningen Traders, ties and tensions Wubs-Mrozewicz, Justyna Joanna IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2008 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Wubs-Mrozewicz, J. J. (2008). Traders, ties and tensions: the interactions of Lübeckers, Overijsslers and Hollanders in Late Medieval Bergen. s.n. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 26-09-2021 Traders, Ties and Tensions For David Groninger Hanze Studies Deel 3 This book is published with the financial support of het Unger-Van Brero Fonds. Illustrations on the cover: Map: Seamap of Europe by Adriaen Gerritszn. van Haarlem and Cornelis Claeszn., Amsterdam 1591 (original: Maritime Museum Rotterdam). Woodcut: Olaus Magnus, Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (1555), Universi - teitsbibliotheek Amsterdam (UvA) Bijzondere Collecties. Logo: Drawing of a cog by a Kampen town clerk, c. 1450-1470 (original: Municipal Archives, Kampen, Old Archives inv. nr. 8 Digestum Vetus). This thesis does n0t have an isbn. The isbn of the commercial edition is 978-90-8704-041-3. © Verloren Publishers, Postbus 1741, nl-1200 bs Hilversum www.verloren.nl Typography Rombus, Hilversum Printing Wilco, Amersfoort Binding Van Strien, Dordrecht No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. Traders, Ties and Tensions The Interaction of Lübeckers, Overijsslers and Hollanders in Late Medieval Bergen Proefschrift ter verkrijging van het doctoraat in de Letteren aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de Rector Magnificus, dr. F. Zwarts, in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 5 juni 2008 om 16.15 uur Justyna Joanna Wubs-Mrozewicz geboren op 28 december 1976 te Poznan´, Polen Promotores: Prof.dr. D.E.H. de Boer Prof.dr. J.E. Olesen Copromotor: Dr. A.J. Brand Beoordelingscommissie: Prof.dr. K. van Berkel Prof.dr. M.G.J. Duijvendak Prof.dr. P.C.M. Hoppenbrouwers Contents Acknowledgements 9 Introduction 11 Demarcations of Research: Lübeckers, Overijsslers and Hollanders in Bergen until c. 1560 13 Relevant Historical Research 19 Sources 24 Analytical Framework: Changeable Ingroups and Outgroups 28 The Core and Angles of Analysis 33 I The Ins and Outs of The Trade Politics of Lübeckers and Overijsslers: Privileges, Rights and Restrictions 35 The Regulations until c. 1441: Implicit and Explicit Participation in Rights 37 The Regulations c. 1441-1560 50 The Fifteenth Century: The Strife for the Confirmations of Rights 50 The Sixteenth Century: Large- and Small-Scale Conflicts 55 Conclusions 61 II Hansards and Hollanders: Rival Groups in Trade Rights? 63 Beginnings 64 Developments in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century 73 Conclusions 80 III Group Administrators 82 The Kontor 83 The Bergen Kontor Administration and the Dominance of Lübeckers 83 The Jurisdiction of the Kontor and the Change in the Sixteenth Century 90 Overijsslers and Administration 91 The Overijssel Merchants and the Central Kontor Administration 91 The Question of Self-Governance of the Overijssel Merchants: An Ingroup within the Kontor or an Outgroup? 95 The Solved Mystery of the Deventer Alderman (1397) 98 Hollanders in Bergen and Group Administration 100 Conclusions 102 6 traders, ties and tensions IV Summertime, Wintertime: Group Settlements 104 The Fluid Physical Boundaries of the Kontor 104 Overijsslers in the Bergen Kontor: Winter Residence and Inner Divisions 113 Hollanders in Bergen 120 Conclusions 125 V Making, Breaking, and Bending Group Rules 126 The Coherent ‘Contoir’ 127 Only Hansards in the Kontor 127 Secrecy 134 The ‘aff gewecken dudesche’ or the ‘Ex-Hansards’: Breaking out of the Kontor 136 Commensality, Conviviality, and Confraternity 139 Relations with Norwegian Women: Bending and Breaking the Rules 143 The Credit System: One Boundary? 148 Overijsslers and the Non-Physical Boundaries of the Kontor 153 The Matter of Ships: Overijsslers and Hollanders Meeting at the Boundary 160 Hollanders 163 Conclusions 168 VI Goods and Groups: Cooperation, Co-Existence, Competition 170 Stockfish 172 Lübeckers and Overijsslers 176 Hansards and Hollanders 181 Grain Products 189 Lübeckers and Overijsslers 191 Hansards and Hollanders 195 Textiles 198 Lübeckers and Overijsslers: Interwoven in the Deventer Cloth Trade 199 Hansards and Hollanders 205 Smallwares, Big Issue? 207 Conclusions 212 VII Conflict Resolution within the Kontor: Three Cases 214 Overijsslers at Loggerheads in the 1460s: the Loud Case of Hermen Schoteler from Kampen, and Dirck Johanszoon and Gert Girinck from Deventer 216 Ingroup Intricacies: Overijsslers, Wends, and the Kontor in the 1468-1477 Conflict 224 One against All, All against One? The Case of Hinrick van Hasselt 236 Conclusions 243 contents 7 Conclusions and Beyond: the Bergen Case as a Universe of its Own, or a Microcosm of the Hanse? 245 Complex Relations in Bergen 245 Universe of its Own: Understanding the Relations in Bergen 249 Microcosm of the Hanse 253 Samenvatting 257 Sources and Bibliography 264 Unpublished Sources 264 List of Abbrevations (Published Sources and Bibliography) 265 Published Sources 266 Bibliography 268 Index 281 Acknowledgements This doctoral project and book owe a great deal to the inspiration, comments and help of many people. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisors: Dick de Boer and Hanno Brand at the University of Groningen. I greatly benefit- ed from and enjoyed our discussions, particularly when the two of you amicably disagreed with each other. My supervisor at the University of Greifswald, Jens E. Olesen, welcomed me not only with valuable suggestions, but also coffee and cakes. Second, I would like to express my gratitude to Ernst Håkon Jahr (University of Agder, Norway) for leading me onto the ‘Hanseatic’ track in the first place by giv- ing a captivating guest lecture years ago, as well as to Signe Horn Fuglesang (Uni- versity of Oslo) and Per G. Norseng (Norwegian Maritime Museum, Oslo), who taught me the tricks of the research trade during my stay in Oslo. The staff and re- searchers connected with various libraries and archives also proved to be immense- ly helpful, in particular Antjekathrin Graßman and Rolf Hammel-Kiesow in Lübeck. Former colleagues at the (former) Centre for Viking and Medieval Studies (University of Oslo) and the Institute of History at the University of Groningen, as well as Knut Helle at the University of Bergen and Louis Sicking at the Univer- sity of Leiden, all gave many positive impulses to this study. Family and friends in all corners of the world provided both support and diversion. And last but not least, thank you, David. I would not have written this book without you. Introduction The situation at the Hanseatic Kontor in Bergen in 1469 was tense to say the least. Merchants from Kampen in Overijssel, who were members of this particular Hanseatic settlement in Norway, were furious about the unfair treatment they had received there a year earlier. Not only had the Kontor alderman and his assistants hindered the Overijsslers from conducting their business, excluded them from the common table, and forced them to pay a stiff fine, but the authorities had also pub- licly humiliated them. Stripped to their underwear, the traders had had to beg the assembled Kontor merchants for mercy, all because of their alleged illegal trading practices with Hollanders.1 This confrontation brings to the fore the three main groups of merchants that are the subject of this study, namely: – the dominant group at the Bergen Kontor, the Lübeckers, who occupied the posts of alderman and assistants;2 – the indignant Overijssel traders from Kampen, later joined in their pursuit of justice by burghers from Deventer and Zwolle, by then all members of the Hanseatic League and the Kontor;3 – and last but not least, the tacit party in this conflict, that is the Hollanders – in the Bergen context primarily Amsterdammers – who at no time were members of the Bergen Kontor.4 The incident also illustrates the dynamics of the mercantile relationships which will be analysed in this study. First there were the Hanseatic and Kontor ties between Lübeckers and Overijsslers, which laid the foundations for their co-existence and 1 Source of 1469, referring to the events of 1468, in A. Taranger e.a. (eds.) Norges gamle Love. Anden Række 1388-1604, 4 vol. (Christiania/Oslo 1912-) (henceforth NGL II) vol. 2 pp. 727-729; also pub- lished in Diplomatarium Norvegicum, 22 vol. (Christiania/Oslo 1847-) (henceforth DN) vol. 6 nr. 566 and G. von der Ropp (ed.) Hanserecesse. Zweiter Abtheilung. 1431-1476, 7 vol. (Leipzig 1876-1892) (henceforth HR II) vol. 6 nr. 186; recounted in 1476, NGL II/2 pp. 742-743 (HR II/7 nr. 388); NGL II/2 pp. 734-738 (HR II/7 nr. 342) § 27, NGL II/2 p. 739 (HR II/7 nr. 343) § 5. See the analysis in chap- ter ‘Conflict Resolution within the Kontor: Three Cases’. 2 NGL II/2 p. 742 (HR II/7 nr. 388). 3 NGL II/2 p. 738 (HR II/7 nr. 342) § 27; NGL II/2 pp.