POLISH-FLEMISHTRADE IN THE MIDDLEAGES b-V.'NlARIA}i NI,\i-OW IST (WARSAW. POLAND)
i POLAND'S X,IEDIEVALTRADE ROUTES Comparatively little is known regarding Poland's entered the system of international commodity ex- foreign trade during the lliddle Ages.-the This obscurity change current in the thirteenth century, and some is primarily to be attributed to inconsiderable authorities even state that as early as the twelfth amount of source-material handed down to our times. century Poland was a very important tra-nsit country The difficuities arising from this situation are in Jact {or trade between Eastern-and Western, Northern and often unsurmountable, and will explain why Polish Southern Europe. The network of commercial arteries historiography is rather deficient in works on the traversing the Poland of those times in any cas€ subject. Of theseperhaps the most worthy of attention fully coiresponded with the exigencies of such are Kutrzeba's study on the tracle of Cracow1 and intercourse. Charewiczowa'son the commercial relations of Lw6w.2 The great trade routes in medieval Poland swept Thc present writer published en essay some yerrs from wes[ to east, and from the Baltic-to the Black ago which aimed to present an outline of Polish- Sea and Hungary. The former were undoubtedly the Flemish commercial relations from the thirteenth to older, since the north-south and north-southeastern the beginning of the fifteenth century. 3 The history routes were established during the period of Hanseatic of Poland's economic contacts with Flanders would suorema.cvon the shores of the Baltic and the era of appear to merit closer attention if only becausethe prosperitf rvhich visited the Italian trading settle- latter rvas the orincioal centre of economic life in ments in the Crimea and at the :rrcuttr oi the Dol. \Yestern Europe-during-encleavoured medieval times, and virtuallv One of the oldest of the trade routes traversing Poland the whole of Eurcpe to participate in led from England through Flanders and lvestern Flemish trade and to extract the gieatest profit Germany to Frankiurt-on-the-Oder, and thence by from such relations. The object-the of the present article way o{ }Iigdzyrzecz, Poznafi, Gniezno and Wloc}awek is to sketch the tristory of efforts^madeby the to banzig. t This route bifurcated in Saxony, where Polish commerciai world to secure access to Biuges a branch passedthrough Kottbus, Guben and Poznan rnd the otlrer great centres of trade and handicraft to Danzig.s Both routes, however,lost their import- production' in old Flanders. ance as earlv as the thirteenth century. At about It can be stated that the system of foreign tlade the same time another great route spring into pro- in Northern Europe during the thirteenth, fourteenth minence - running from Italy through Austria, and fifteenth centuries revolved around the Bruges- Bohemia, and Silesia to Wroclaw (Breslau), where Novgorod axis, and consisted in the exchange of it connected with a route from Germany penetrating Western and Southern European commodities for throush Cracow and Ruthenia to the Euxine and the (oods from the north and north-east. fhe former Sea of -A,zov. group of commodities included cloth, salt, wine, and The oldest north-south route was that which spices from the south-east; north-eastern Europe ran from Torun via Bobrowniki to Plock and Kazi- exported furs, bees-wax, timber and other forest and mierz-on-the-Vistu1a, and thence by way of Lublin animal products. During the thirteenth century this and Chelm to Wlodzimierz Wolynski (Vladimir- trade fell into the hands of the Hanseatic towns Volynski) .6 It was in ail probability already in lvho thenceforth jealously guarded their predominant operation in the thirteenth century. Somewhat 1ater, position and offered strenuous resistance to all pos- another route was opened up; it also issued from sible rivals. This system of relations wielded an Torun but led to Lw6w and not to Wiodzimierz, enormous influence on the directions of trade routes passing through Brze(i Kujawski, I-owicz, Rawa, in the whole ol Northern Europe, and hence on those Radom, Opat6w, Sandomierz, Rzesz6w, Lubacz6w r,ilir.d by P"l^"d. 'Handel I S. Kutrzeba, Ilrakowa w wiekach Srednich' au XIV sidcle', Reuue belge de Philologie et d'Histoirc, Brussels (Cracow's Trade iq the \'Iiddle -\ges), Rozprawy Polshiei ,4ha- r93:,- Vol. X. dcmti Umiejgtnoici (Publications of the Polish Academy of | HaePke, Brtigges Entuichlung zrqtt ,nittelalterlichen lvelt- Sciences), Philosopby and History Series, Cracow r9o3, Vol. 44; marhl, Berlin r9o8, p. 36. an II RISE OF POLISH-FLEN{ISH CONIMERCIALRELATIONS SILESIAN TRADE was finally processedby the shearmen of Wroclaw 16 The absence of original source-materials makes - presumably in order to reduce costs,as the Flemish it impos'ible to determine preciscly when Poland artisans received much higher wages than their first entered into direct commercial relations with Silesian colleagues. Great quantities of Flemish cloth Western Europe. It will therefore be necessary to were sold in Wroclaw as the SilesiancaDital maintained adopt sorne more or less well founded hypotheses. extensive and animated commerciai relations with One oi these, proposedby K. -\laleczynski,suggests other regions of Europe. that Polish merchants journied to Western Europe Only a part of the products imported by Wroclaw as earlv as thc thirteenth century when thev visited from Flanders was absorbed by local buyers; prc- the Iaiis of the Champagnecountry. 11 He supports bably most of the goods in question ultimately found his supposition by reference to the archives of the their way to Central Poland, Ruthenia, Bohemia ArchbisiLopo{ Cologne under the year rz5r, where and Austria. It is diificult to state what other goods, mention is made that merchants {rom Bohemia, apart from cloth,were brought to Silesiafrom Flanders, Poland and other neighbouring countries were for- but we may assume that they comprised Spanish, bidden to continue their journies westwards from French, Italian and Greek lvines,as also other western Cologne.12trIaleczvnski's contention does not appear and southern produce. Still greater uncertainty exists to be fullv acceptable,however, in that the thirteenth as to the nature of the goods exported by Silesia to century archi-episcopal record is supported by no Flanders, as no direct indications have been handed evidence Jrom other sources that Poland traded down for our enlightenment in this respect. Goods clirect with Western Europe at that early epoch. imported bv-end Flanders are cited in a document drarvn Such distant ventures were then extremelv hazardous up- at the of the thirteenth century, and this and required consiclerable pecuniary ouilays which record inter alia contains the followine mention: 'dou the Poiish merchants had great difficulty in meeting, Royaume de Polane vient or et argt'nt en plate, even in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.Of course cire, vairs et gris (skins and furs) et coiwe (copper).'16 it is not irnpossiblethat Polish merchants made sporadic lVlanv historians consider that the chronicler was ln journies to the markets of Western Europe, and in error when he included eold and silver ware as Polish this connexion the Wroclaw traders primarilv enter goods imported by Flanders; it is maintained that into consideration. There is reliable- evidenie that in reality these must have been ol Hungarian pro- the capital of Silesia maintained commercial relations venance and had merely passed-has through Poland in 1? with thirteenth century Flanders, great-principal quantities transit. This contenti6n alreadv been opposed of cloth being imported t. from the textile by the present writer in a previous work, in-'fuhich b centres - Bruges, Poperinghe,Ypres, Ghent, Ilalines, tlie folbwing counter-argunients were advan^ced: Courtrai, Brussels, Louvain, etc. 1r In many cases (r') Noble an-d semi-base metals extracted in Silesia the cloth was imported in an unfinished state and were still an object of trade during the second hal{ 8Ibid. VIII' L3 Codex d,iplomotictts Si/esiae, Breslau r867, .Vot. e Kutrzeba, Hattd,el Krahcwa u v;.eF,cchtrednich, p, 8. \o. r. The act oi r tol regulates tbe retail sale of cloth ilentron " Hanslsche: L thunJeflauch, \".1. IIL No. 5rg. is also made of cloih-from Ghent and Ypres' r1 Ii. llaleczyriskr, |iaTstars;e larg! u, Polsce i slosuneh ici r{ Ibid. and No. 39, Act of 136o. do miast przed holon!:acja na prauie niemtechietn (The Earliest tt Ciat, dtotomatiiis Silesiae,iol. VIII, No 78' Kladerbuch' Fairs in Poland and their Relatioq to the Towns prior to Set- La Hansiscies L-thundenbuch Vol lll, No 6z'1' tlement based on German Law), Lw6rv r9:o. r? Kutrzeba, op. cil, P. 22' 12 Ibid. rs Malowist, op. cit, P. 8 V'OL. IV. No. 1. [8]. J/NU.{Rr" t9J8 POLISH.FLEMISH TRADE IN THE MIDDLE AGES of the {ourteenth centurl', when they were exported The tendency to introduce the principies of to Bohemia; there were large stock! of coppei, cer- staple trade actually provoked a sharp conflict with tainiy {rom the Silesian mines, on the Wroclaw the Prussian towns towards the end o{-the fourteenth 'Polane', 23 marliet at the time.r'g(z) The name signi- century. The outcome was un{avourable for the fyine Silesia, appears in some -sources as late as Silesian metropolis, which rvas obliged to content the iatter half oT-the fourteenth century.20 This is itself thencejorth with the restricted application o{ quite understandabie when it is considered that staple rights. Foreignerscontinued to plal;a dominant Silesia ceased to be an integral part of the Polish rOle in Silesian-Flemish trade durins ih6 second half State onh' at the beginning of that century. It ap- of the fourteenth centurv. The prolonged wars be- pears, there{ore, that the reference in the list of tween Poland and the Teutonic-Ordeiin the four- Flemish imports is reliable and corresponds to the teenth and fifteenth centuries must have proved state of a{fairs then current. Thus at the end of the detrimental to Silesia's trade-with Flanders, if only thirteenth century Poland exported to Flanders not because of the dislocation of communications with only {urs and bees-wax but also copper, gold and Darzig and Torun. il Since staple trade was also silver of Silesian oriein. enforced at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, the lVroclaw Transit trade did of course exist. and comorised merchants had only one route available for dealinss goods transported from the Italian trading settlements rvith Flanders - that by way of Leipzig and Erfurt. It on the Euxine and on the Sea of Azov (cotton, pepper, is not known, however, whether advantage was taken etc.).21 In all probability Wroclaw, as the largest of this amenity. In any case, if the Wroclawers did commercial centre in Poland, carried on a iively journey to Flanders in the filteenth century, sucl.r export to Flanders. But this does not imply that ventures were very few and far betrveen. The best the merchants of Wroclaw necessarily had direct proof of the city's small share in direct trade with commercialrelations with that part of Europe. The Flanders is a{forded by its slight interest in the affairs clistance between the two reeions was a coniiderable of the Hanseatic League. Thus Wroclaw sent no dele- onc for those times, and the journey both risky and gates to the assembliesof the Hansa, where the Prus- expensive. Such considerations were probably suf- sian merchants at times represented its commercial ficient to discourage the merchants of Wroclaw from interests.25 rlirect, active partlcipation in trade with Flanders. The foregoino remarks serve to indicate that Thev evidentlv preferred to leave this {unction to Silesia's trade with Flanders was not a maior foreign tradersl in recompensethe Wroclaw merchants item in the economic life ol these regions. Direct barred such traders from proceeding{arttrer south and businessrelations were undeveloDed.butwroclaw had strove to maintain the retail trade as their local some standing as a capacious market for Flemish monopolv. 22 cloth. III PRUSSIAN TIiADE WITH FLANDERS AND POLT\ND LUBECK TRADE AT THE VISTULA MOUTH rights in the hope that LLibeck would furnish him rvith The^"- imnortance""r"^ of Polishterritories as a transit financial help for the prosecution of the war with the area has alreadv been oointed to. This function was Teutonic Order. He granted the right of passage reaiized by the Hansa merchants as early as the through Poland to the merchantsof the Hansain rz96; thirteenth century. It may be surmised that the two years later he exernpted them from the payment support ient to the Teutonic Order by the Liibeckers of customs dues, besides assuring them security oi lvas not designedsolely to extend the sphere and scope trade and transit and relinquishing his rights as of their influence on the Baltic; they were quite sovereign to the property of ship-wrecked mariners. evidently desirous also of penetrating inland to the In addition, he permitted the Hansa to establish basins of the Vistula and the Niemen. At first the a warehouse in Danzig; this pallacium was to serve influence of the Ltibeck merchants at the mouth as a kind of Hanseatic trading post, enjoying both the Of bOth riVerS rMaS Vef\/ rfrnns qnd in rcto lllgy right of sanctuary and its own jud.icial system.2E receiveda chrrter from t{e i.ri"?i. oia"..*pl*.rh'g Although the plan failed to materialize, it serves to them to found a town at the mouth of the Pregola,26 indicate the general tendency of the Liibeckers to g3in probably in connexion with the export of amber. control over the mouth of Poland's principal watenvay. The project, horvever, was never realized. The Their anxiety to secure transit rights thiough Polaid Liibeckers entered into touch rvith the dukes of was probably the expression of their aspiration to Pomerania somewhat later and subsequentlv with establish contacts with Hungary, Ruthenia and the someof the Polish princes. In every casethey met with Italian settlements on the Black Sea and at the mouth a iavourable reception: from the iulers of Pomerania of the Don. The consummation o{ these intentions, they were granted considerablereductions in customs by promoting them to the position of middlemen dues,27while Ladislas the Short gave them extensive bi:tween the Asiatic East and lVestern Europe, would re Codex d,iPlometicws Silesiae, Yolt XX, No. 39. Vol. IV, Nos. 8ro, Er8, E3o. 20 2a Peter Suchenwirt, Von Herzog Albrechts Ritterschalt, llalou'ist, op.'urhundinbuch, cit., p. rr. Scriptores Rer. Pruss., Vol. II, p. r6r. 26 Hansisches Vol. III, No. 285. Toruti 2L Hailsisches Urhunclenbuch, Vol. III, No. 559. Polish proposed in 1360 that Wroclaw and Cracow should draw up customs duty tables of 135o-6o record that such goods were a altaited account oi their lossys suI{ered in Flauders. transported from lVrociarv to Prussia whence some of them 2s Voigt, Codex d,iploruaticus Ptussicus, \'ol.- I, No' 6o' rvere oossiblv carr.ied to Flanders- e? Hirih, Danzigs'Handels- und, Gewerbgeschichteentel det 22'Code; d,iplonaticus Silesiae, Yol. VIII, No. 39. Staple Herrschal! des DewlschenOrJens, Berlin r858, p 6 -- rrghts o{ r360. 28 Coder diplomaticus illqiott: Poloiiae, Vol II, Nos 792' 23 Malowist, op. cit., pp. to-rt. Hansisches Urhundenbuch, 793. Ladislas the Short's acts of I296 and r298' 'l* II.A.RIANMALOWIST BALT IC 4.VD SCA.VDIN.4YIE.Y COUNTRlES have been an enonnous gain to the Liibeck merchants, same year he took steps to encouragethe Torun mer- and would have still further re-inforced. their chants to include Ruthenia in their itineraries and predominance on the markets of Flanders. Lribeck saw to it that they were assured safety of person and ioutd then have seriously challenged the economic merchandise on the way and during the soiourn at supremacy of Venice and Genoa in Europe. But the their destinations.sa Casimir planned to inciease the raoid development of the Prussian towns and the volume of his customs receipts in this manner, and at seizureof Pomerania by the Teutonic Order effectively the same time'to invieorate and extend Polish trade. destroyed all chances of Liibeck's expansion at the His policies soon yielded fruit: the Royai Treasury rnouth of ihe Vistula. The merchants-of'Torun and profited gratifyingly, and so did the merchants of of the other towns under the Order took over the Torun who flocked to Ruthenia, and especially ambitious plans of the Lribeckers. to Lw6w, in great numbers. These enterprising traders actually made determined efforts to reach 'lands PRUSSiAN TRADE WITH FLANDERS AND the distant of Tartary', or rather the Italian POLAND settlementsat Tanais and Kaffa. Torun's trade reached The development of the Prussian towns under its zenith in the middle of the fourteenth century. the rule of the Order was remarkably rapid, owing to The citizens of the town not onlv secured extensive the {avourable geographical situation enjoyed by rights in the Kingdom of Poland but also managed Tomn, Danzig and Elbing, their adherence to the to'consolid.atetheir position in Flanders. fft"s o"?fr" Hanseatic League, and to the protection of the Teuto- reorganization of thi Hanseatic factory at Bruges in nic Order which on many occasionsfound means o{ 1347 the Prussian towns were included in the West- s exacting commercial rights and privileges for its phalian-Prussian quarter. It is true that Cologne subjects. The three towns began to assumean impor- and Dortmund were at first supreme in this region, tant r6le in Hanseatic affairs and in the trade of but as the Westphalian towns withdrew from trade Northern Europe. Nlerchants from Torun appeared within the Hanseatic system soon after, the Prussian in Bruges in rz8o 2e and shortly a{terwards were merchants were left in undisturbed possessionof the 36 already taking a lively share in Flemish trade. The fieid. Thenceforth Danzie and Torun exercisedmore Elbing traders remained rather less prominent and and more influence on the policiesof the Hansa. Elbing we first hear of their visiting Bruges in the year r2g1.ao and Chelmno, on the other hand, abandoned large- The Danzigers were not outdistanced in this respect, scale trading during the latter half of the fourteenlh but it must be borne in mind that their tvpe-pursued of trade century and so lost all significance in the domain of was fundamentally different from that by international commodity exchange. Splendid prospects Torun and Elbine. o{ becomine the sole middlemen in the trade between Whilst the Danzig merchants concentrated all Flanders and the Black Sea and Azov trading dep6ts their efforts on maritime trade, their colleazues in now oDenedup for the merchant adventurers of Torun. Torun and Elbing earned their livelihood by dealing The ful{ilment of these aims required, however, that with the extensive hinterland served by them. The Poland should assumea state of economic passivltv, inhabitants of Torun alreadv maintained animated but it so happened that the reign of Casimir the Great relations with Poland in about r24o,sr and we may ushered in the beginnings of very rapid economrc assumetherefore that they were interested in the trade development. route leading to Hungary or Ruthenia. 32 The Torun merchants secured right of passage through Poland CONI}IERCIAL ACTIVITIES OF THE TEUTONIC in 1286,33and it can now be taken as certain that they ORDER rvereconcerned with reaching Hungary and Ruthenia. No description of the Prussian towns would be Simuitaneously rvith this advance they succeeded complete withbut some mention of the commercial in establishins direct relations vrith Flanders. It would activities of the Teutonic Order. The Order had seem, therefole, that the Prussian merchants were an excellent organization for the conduct of trade, already at this time planning to become the sole mid- directed bv two Schiiffer - one at Nlalborg and the dlemen in trade between Tartary and Hungary on other at Kcinigsberg.The Order's commerciaiturnovers the one hand and Flanders on the other, the more so were pre-eminently based on the export of corn grown that their geographical situation certainly favoured on the warrior-kniehts' estates at the mouth of the such ambitious asoirations. Vistula. Ligger, thi commercial representative of the The war between Poland and the Teutonic Order at Bruges,sold Prussian farm produce and bought Order, by putting enormous difficulties in the way cloth, salt, spices and other commodities. Nluch of communication with the interior of Poland. had amber was sent from Kcinigsberg to Bruges. Both adverse repercussions on the economic fortunes of stewards maihtained relations wittr twOw and so Torun and Elbing. This state of affairs endured until competed with the burgher merchants. The members the Peace of Kalisz, concluded by Casimir the of the Hansa bore this with patience as the Order was Great in 1343, brought better times for the merchants their semi-official protectorl-turnovers but the steady growth of the two cities. The King o{ Poland, perceiving that in the commercial of the Order brdvoked there was no immediate hope of retrieving Pomerania, grave dissatisfaction amongst the Prussian merchant and well aware of the benefits to be securedby gaining class towards the end of the fourteenth centurv. In control of the routes to the Crimea and the mouth iater times, however, during the wars with Polind in of the Don river, launched in 1345 his campaign for the first half of the fourteenth centurr'. the volume the annexation of Red Ruthenia (Red Russia); in the of trade e{fectedbv the Order declined t6 a minimum.3? 2e Haepke. oD. crt.. p. qr. ta Hansisches Urhundenbuch, Vol. III, No. r47, p, 28, s e6 Ibid. Haepke, op. cit,. Dp.' rr? foll. 3r 36 Codet diplonaticus Pzlssicrrs, Vol. I, No.9o. Ibid., pp. b"-st. 32 Ibid. 3? 'Der Hardel des Deutschen Ordens in Preussen zur Zeit 3'Codex diplomaticus Poloniae, \oL. II, No. r3o seiner Blrite', Hansische Geschichtsbldtter, Leipzig t877. vOL. IV. \o. 1. !81. Jr{\'UiRy .I9r8 POLISH-FLE}IISHTR-{DE lN THE MIDDLE AGES 1 IV I POLISH-FLENIiSH TRADE IN THE XIV AND XV CENTURIES CONDITIONS FOR DEVELOP}IENT OF PO- remained a secondary consideration. Northern Poland LAND'S FOREIGN TRADtr IN THE XIV AND at the turn of the fourteenth and filteenth centuries XV CENTURIES still produced no commodity which could serve as We have so far deait onlv with the commercial a staile product assuring it any standing in the great relations of Flanders ri-ith Prussia anC Silesia- markets o{ the world. It was only in later years, with provinces.which had not, at the beginning of the the rapid development of agriculture, that a growth fourteenth centur)', been restored to the resurgent in foreign trade was accelerated. Prior to then, during Kingdom of Poland. Ii has been shown likewise"h"ow tlte fourteenth century, such commerce was of very important lvere the territories of Poland {or Prussian minor importance in tlie economic life of Great Polanii and Silesian trade in view of their geographical ano. _tLulavla. situation: trade with Poland herself. however, was not so attractive to the Prussian and Srlesian merchants SOUTH POLAND'S TRADE WITH as the transit facilities which that countrv offered. FLANDERS The merchants sought in such wise to establish direct The available information on the foreign trade contacts with Hun[ary and Ruthenia, and the Polish of southern Poland durins the thirteenth and four- rulers at the turn of the thirteenth and Iourteenth cen- teenth centuries is extremely sparse. It is certain, turies showed themselveson the '"vholefavourablv dis- however, that the Cracovian merchants already traded 'Magde- posed to this transit traffic, Ior they app.eiiated with Hungary at that era. Cracow's receipt of that it greatly swelled the revenue accruing from the burg' rights in n57 and its subsequentpersonal union customs duties. The commercial policies of the Kings with Bol-remiacontributed to brine about a tremen- of Poland at this epoch, as in the whole of medieval dous development irr its trade, as-the merchants of Europe,were based solely on fiscalconsiderations. This the citv thereby securedbetter contacts with Southern situation, however, could not endure indefinitely; soon- Europe. This'auspicious state of affairs continued er or later Polish merchants were bound to appear and, during the first few years of the reign of Ladislas the in the pursuance of their own policies, could not but Short, and prosperity was in particular assured when put forward their claims and postulates. In lact, this the latter granted Cracow staple rights in 13o6. It happened towards the encl of the era of regional would appear from the text of his charter that the particularism in Poland, during the reigns of the last burgessei-ofCracow sought to securea monopoly of two kings of the Piast dynasty. The cities began to the Hungarian copper export trade to Northern Eu- make rapid progress as early as the middle of the rope.38 It is probable that the Cracoviansalready thirteenth century; the influx of German immigrants traded with Flanders at that early period; we do not undoubtedlv gave an intpulseto this development,but know, horvever,whether thev actuallv journied thither favourable geographical location lvas one of the most themseivesor whether they utilized the servicesol vital conditions and whenever Polish or alien settlers the Torun merchants as middlemen. The latter must decided to found a city they naturally chose a site in any case have been more frequently the practice which afforded guarantees of commercial progress. since the long journey to Bruges required a consider- Hence, too, the enorrnous influx of foreigners to able outlav of monev and was much more hazardous. Cracow, I-w,5w and the other South Po[sh and It is recoided that a partv of Cracovian merchants Ruthenian towns iying on the routes to Flungary proceededto Bruges in r3io by way of the Vistula s and the Black Sea. Hungary exported large quantities and vie Danzig. Quite possibly such undertakings of Slovakian copper, whilst relations with the Italian were of more frequent occurrence but we have no settlements on the Euxine opened up alluring pro- evidence to confirm this supposition. spectsof participationin the Levant trade. Cracow enjoyed its stapie rights for barely two Not all of Poland was so felicitouslv situated from years. The burgessesof southern Poland engineered the point of view o{ international trahe in medieval in uprising agairst the King, and when Ladislas the times; the country in this respect was divisible into Short crushed the revolt he deprived the capital of two zones - a northern and a southern zone. The many of its previous rights and privileges. Further, iatter offered much greater facilities for trade owing he lent his support to the smaller towns and in par- to the proximity of Hungary and the Black Sea ticular favoured Nowy S4cz,permitting the merchants countries. Southern Poland's foreign trade coupled oi that city to use the Dunajec and the Vistula as with that of Ruthenia was primarilv one of transit a waterwav to Danzig, and empowering them to orqa- during the fourteenth and filteenth ienturies. It fol- nize an anhual eight--dayfair (iuly r3lzo).4 Nlenic- Iows that every major disturbance in the general poli- ing though these steps were to the trade of Cracow, tical or economic structure of Europe of neceisity thEy appirently gave rise to no serious consequences; reacted adversely on the prosperity of the towns of Cas"imii^the Gieat, Ladislas's successor,rev6rted in southern Poland and of Ruthenia. The north- fact to the old policy of supporting the trade of the ern provinces of Poland, on the other hand, were capital. Nor could such disturbances impede the in quite a different position. They had no maritime coitinued development of Cracow's trade. Iis burgh- Dort of their own and so lacked convenient conneions ers went more and more often to Flanders in pursuit with the principal trade routes from Western Europe of their comrnercialventures. Galhardus de Carceribus, to Russia; moreover, owing to their distance from the the Papal nuncio, handed the sums collected as Peter's southern commercial centres of the countrv. the Penceln Poland to Nicholas Viersing and Wigand of possibility of developing transit tralfic inei,itably Lubczyce in 1335so that they could deposit thdmoney xB ta Codex diplomaltctts Ciuitatis Ctacottensis, \-ol. I, No. 44 Codes diplomalicus Minoris Poloniae, Volume I, Numbers ro Kutrzeba, op. cit. p. zz. 16o,rZ3. illARIAN NIALOWIST B.ILT IC ?1ND .sciNrIN.4 vI.4N COUNTR,TES al with the Itaiian bankers at Bruges. Other mer- for the first time in Polish history we are deaiing with {2 chants undertook a similar mission in 1348. The a consciouslyconceivedandexecu[ed commercial iolicy. performance of such services for the Nuncio was of Casimir's ambitious pian did not, however, with- iourse only an incidental purpose of the journey and stand the test o{ life. Neither the Prussians nor the it can be"confidently surmised that the Cracovian Silesians.were prepared to resign from the territories merchants carried goods for sale in Bruges where they had selected for their economic expansion. The thev purchased other comnodities. Rather later Teutonic Order met the situation by concluding souice3permit us to state with absolute certainty that a treaty with the Grand Duke of Lithuania, cloth minufactured in Bruges, Ypres, Ghent, Xlalines, whereby the Prussian merchants were permitted to Brabant and Wallonia was easily the chief article cross Lithuania in transit to the Black Sea coast imoorted bv Cracow from Flanders. a3 As in the case (1355).ut This effectivecounter-stroke forced Casimir oJ Wroclaw, the cloth was imported in an unfinished to abandon his design, since he ieared that the treaty state for the most part. a{ In addition, Grenadan, would deprive Poland of her privileged position as southern French and Greek ()Ialvoisie) wines and a transit country. The project for making Cracow other Western products were imported from Fian- the intermediary between Hungary, the Black Sea ders. {5 Only a part of these goods was consumed in countries and Western Europe (particularly Fland- Cracow,the remainderbeing exportedto Hungary and ers) had to arvait a more auspicious opportunity; Ruthenia. We lack detailsconcerning Cracow's export its realization would, indeed, have evoked fund- trade to Flanders but it is almost certain that Hun- amental and far-reaching changes in the structure of garian copper, Hungarian and Poiish iead, goid and the commercial reiations of medieval Europe. silver, siiks, pepper, saffran, ginger, furs, etc., were Data are lackine on Cracow's trade with Flanders sold to Flanders. a6 These data re1er to the year r4o3, during the second half of Casimir's reign and that of however, and some slight inaccuracies are therefore his successor,Louis of Hungary. We know, however, possible. \\re must again stress the transit character that in this period Cracow further: consolidated its o{ Cracow's exoort trade with the Flemish market. hold over trade with Hungary and Ruthenia; the In any caseit ij certain that Polish produce (bees-wax, prosperity of the city grew steadily and with it the timber, hides, meat, etc.) rvas ol minor importance aspiration to overcome the predominance of the Torun in the trade ancl that Hungarian copper was the chief merchants who barred accessto the Baltic and con- commoditv deait in. {? tinued to compete with Cracow for the foreigrr trade It haj already been statecl that Casimir the Great of Hungary. But {or the time being there was no had more understandins {or the needs of the towns hope of eliminating or mastering the power of the thrn lris predecessors.Nevertheless, at the begin- Prussian traders; the latter were shielded by the nig of his reign he based his cornmercial poiicy on might of the Teutonic Order, whilst the rulers o{ fiscal considerations, and encouraged the Prussian Poland were aware that the time was not vet rioe for merchants to visit Poland and the newly acquired a decisive settlement of the deep-rootid conflict Ruthenian territories.{8 But shortly after r35o the between the Order and Polancl. Thus th.e fa.te o{ I(ing radically changed his policy. He determined to Cracow's trade became inextricablv bound rro with take advantase of the fact that the overland routes the great politicai problems presentedby the Teutonic to the Black Sea lay under his control and to make Order. For this reason, the coronation of Ladislas Cracolv a great emporium acting as an intermediary Jagiello as King of Poland and consort of Queen {c between Western Europe, Hungary and fhe East. Jadwiga, as also the Polish-Lithuanian Union, had There is no evidenceto show whether the King con- not only far-reaching political but also economic con- ceived this idea himsell or whether it was suggested seeuences. The predominance of the Order over its to him by the rveaLthy burgessesof Cracow: in any southern neighbours was thereby seriousiy under- case, he began to realize it with great energy. The mined. Poland's new monarch initiated a'bolder line merchants of Torun soon felt the painful e{fect of the of policy, and in 1387 the Cracow merchants recoverecl new policv. Customs duties were raised and the con- all their rights of staple trade both as regards the com- ditions of-safety on the roads greatly deteriorated;50 rretition of Prussian and of Silesian traders. 5a Some Poland could not openly declare economic war as years later, an agreement lvas concluded whereby the 'Flanders this would have roused the Teutonic Order to inter- Road'was inaugurated; the new route vene on behalf of its subiects. Casimir showed no branched off from the old one at I-gczyca, thence ran less energy in his dealings with the merchants of along the Warta and the Oder to Stettin, Anklam, Wroclaw. whom he wished to exclude from the Ruthe- Wolgast and to the other nearby ports on the Baltic. 55 nian lands. Here, too, he practised chicanery and The promoters of the scheme,in all .probability mem- obstruction,6r and when the Siiesiansprotested he bers of the commercial classes,desired in this manner alfirmed that the Ruthenian trade rout-es had been to avoid Torun, to securefree accessto the Baltic and conqueredby him for the good of his own subjects.62 thus to Flanders. The plan yielded no results as the This frank and interestine declaration indicates that new route was too roundabout and arduous; but ar I(utrzeba, lVisla u hislorii gospodarczei Polshi (The a8Ibid., p. ro; and Vol. III, Nos. r56, r59, t7r. re Vistula in the Economic History of Poland), Lubiin r9r8, p. 53. Kutrzeba, Hand,el Krahoua u wiehach Srednich, p. 3o {r Ibid. so Hansisches Urhundenbuch, Vol. III, No. 53:. rt\ Codet diplonat?cus Ciuitatis Ctacouiensis, Part. z, Nos 2,6:. 5r Ibid., Vol. III, Nos. z3r, 287. {. Ibid. 5' Ibid., Vol. III, No. u3r. The King of Poland is presumed 'se r'' IIa,tsischesIJthundenbuch, Vol. IV, Nos. ror7, ror8, ro34. to have said: terram Russye propriis suis honinibus ex- Agreement between Poland and West Pomerania in r39o relating pugnasse et quod illa via solum suis hominibus et mercatoribus 'Road to the to Flanders'. patere debet'. 16 Toeppen, Aclen de/ St,ind,etogeOst- und Westpreussens, 53 Ibid., Vol. III, Nos. 317, 532. Vol. I, No. 66. Decree issued by the Grand llaster in r4o3 5a Codex d,iplonalicus Ciuitalis Crocouiensis, Part. z, No. 63. relatiilg to the Prussian ports and directed against Cracow's 35 Hansisches Urhundenbuch, Vol. IV, Nos. ror7, ror8, f,raoe. ra2r, ro34, Agreements concluded in r39o between Boguslarv, ai HansischesL-thlndenbuch, Vol. IV, Nos. ror7, ror8, ro34. Duke of Pomerania, and his towns. t'OL. Iv. No. 1. [81. JANLjARY 1e:t8 POLISH.FLEMISE TRADE IN THE MIDDLE AGES the very {act that this treaty was signed in r39o the commercial aspirations of Nowy S4cz aimed shows how greatly Poland prized her commercial farther than this, and the city presumibly purchased relations wit6 Flanders. its supplies 9f \!-estern European produtti through The merchants o{ Torun endeavoured to oppose Cracorv or Torun and not direct Trom Flanders. such action of their Cracow colleagues and in r4o3 Resuming the loregoing, it is necessaryto stress secured staple rights from the Grand Nlaster of the the transit character of South Poland's irade with Order Ior all Hungarian products passing through Flanders. The merchants of Cracow were extremely their territory in transit from Poland.56 The Cracov- anxious to establish and consolidate commercial ians tried every means to evade the wt.rrkingsof the relations with Flanders * then the economic centre staple system, but there can be no doubt that the of Northern and lVestern Europe. In this they failed, rivalry with Torun greatly hindered the normal deve- in spite of the help given therir bv the ruleri of Po- lopment of trade with Flanders. In spite of this, land, owing to the effective counteractionof Torun the merchants of Poland's former capital-turn visited backed by the powerful support of the Teutonic Flanders more and more often at the of the Order. The absence of unhindered access to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Special compan- Baltic was the supreme factor weakening Poland's ies rvere formed for trade with that distant land in commercial status. Relations between Soulh Poland order to reduce the risk run bv individual merchants. and Flanders were most intimate during the closing Sometimes several companiei would send a single years of the {ourteenth and the opening years of the representative to Flanders and so reduce their tra- {ifteenth century. Then decline set in, occasioned velling expenses. A large part o{ the goods bought by the difficuliies of communication and by the at Bruges was sent through Cracow to Ko5ice,5? basic changes in the trade of Northern Europe. then the principal centre for Poiish-Hungarian trade. TRADE In fact, this period was markeclby the closesteconomic RUTHENIAN relations between southern Poland and Flanders. The foreign tlade of the Red Ruthenian (Red Poland's decisive victory over the {orces of the Russian) territories and of Woiyn (\/olhynia) was (Grun- in Teutonic Order at the Battle of Tannenberg"a-mongst similar to that of southern Poland structure, rvald) stirred up tremendous enthusiasm and it was likewise characteristically transit in the burghers of Cracow: thev probably expected to nature. eain unhinclered accessto the Baltic as a result. Yet The largestcommercial centre in Ruthenia during iheir hopes were doomed to disappointment. The the thirteenth and the early fourteenth century was victorious outcome of the great war in r4ro, though Wlodzimierz Wolynski (Vladimir Volynski). lVe have it broke the power of the Order, merely inaugurated aiready drawn attention to the trade routes con- a protracted war of attrition betweenPoland and the nectine this town with the Genoese and Venetian Knights. The duel lasted until 1466(Second Peace of settlements on the Black Sea. Its geographical forun) and placed enormous obstacles in the way location was therefore favourable and its commercial of all communications with the Baltic coast. The development should have been rapid. The first indi- Cracorvmerchants became more than ever disinclined cation-oJ ielations with Flanders dates back to the to undertake the long and costly journey to Flanders. 1124.60 Probablv the Prussians acted as mid- vear "but Whilst trading expeditions to Flanders and back ill"-e.i in this trade. in the absence of reliable had been successfully undertaken frorn time to time data we cannot be certain of this. during the first half of the filteenth century, absolu- The trade of Wlodzimierz Wolynski rvas rapidly telv none were niade in later times 58- this as a result declining by the middle of the fourteenth century nol only of the wars between I'oland zrndthe Teutonic owing to the keen competition o{ Lw6w. t he latter Order but in even greater measure of the fundament- city had been granted the extensive local-govern- -commercial 'Nlagdeburg al change in the relations of Europe. ment rights known as the Law' on its F,,r Bruges Iost its former significance during the incorpor"ation with Poland, and it received sta-ple latter haif of the fifteenth centurv and the centre of righti in 1372, although with the reservation that international commoditv exchanee was transferred it-was not tb hinder the operations of other Polish to Antwerp. The Flemish cloth irade declined and and Hungarian merchants. 6t Eight years la.ter,how- was supplantedby that of its Dutch rivals, particu- ever, eveir this condition was removed: all outside lariy with regard to the Baltic countries. The situation merchants passing through Lw6w on their way t,o of the Cracow merchants also took a turn for the the East orbn the'return-iourney were obligedto call ^ l-,.lt ar +har nitr, pitblicty goods worse. Nuremberg ousted them from the Hungarian d lldrl ar trrdL urLy ""'larru to offer their market, whilst a sudden and sharp decreasein the for sale during th6 term bf fouiteen days, afte^rwhich output of Hungarian copper struck a heavy blow thev were perit,itted to proceed on their way'6s Some to lay an at the bases ol Cracow's trade. Flanders was timL later,^the Lw6w mirchants attempted 'Tarlar no longer attractive to the Cracov-ians and it embarso on other persons trading with the Droved necessarv to seek fresh fields o{ economic lands'i but the opposition ol the Ciacorian merchants acrrvrry. oroved. too strons and the former were forced to We know little about commercial relations be- lO"nao" their plan", especially when a verdict of the tlveen Flanders and the smaller towns of southern Roval Tribunai of Tustice d'eclared against it' The Poland. Nowy S4czwas in direct contact with Prussia .ii.i .tiit ..i"yed iti rights of staple tiade -inasmuch at the end of the thirteenth centurv: timber and ;;;ii"d to thi route leading to the mouth use smali shipments of copper were dri{ted down the of"iih*" the Dod," but the Cracovians were allowed to to rivers to that market.6e It does not seem likely that the south-eastern route running through Moldavia 66 rights to tbis (1306' 1354)' )Ialowist, op. crt., pp. 35-36. ,9. C*"o* issued staple Prevent 6? Ibid., pp. 3617. tc oe. S f o,-, op. c it., p. r K,'t.z-ha ^n ^,f n t t I *i::,-""d": ;';; tn* )f i ;,ji'ji 7"f i 6r " E' Co'|er d.iptromalicusCiuilqtis Cracouiensis, Put. r, Nos. 4, Ibid., p. : ro. }IARIAN IlALOlVIST BALT IC,4N' SC.lND1,\A VI AN COU N't RTES Kaffa (Feodozia).63The latter lading centre became Ruthenian towns never plaved any rdle to speak^ of of oaramount importance after Tanais and Astrakhan in commercial intercoursewith Flanders. had been sackedby Tamerlane: these former fiour- ishing commercial settlements never recovered, the FLE}IISH TRADE WITH GREAT-POLAND AND trade beine transferred to Kaffa and the Italian PO}IERANIA IN THE XIV AND XV CENTURIES ports of Cetatea Alba (Akkerman) and Chilia. The Great-Poland and the other northern Drovinces i-w,jrv merchants secured far-reaching privileges from ol Poland were in a much worse position than the the rulers of the Danubian principaliliis in r-.-3goancl southern territories. The trade rouies between Ger- r4o7,n4 and strove to concentratethe whole of NIol- manv and the mouth of the Vistula lost much of their tlavia's export to lVestern Europe in their own hands. econbmic importance during the fifteenth century. But the-firm.opposition.of the Cracoviansprevented Further, the great development of the large towns these plans frora materializing. in Pomerania (Torun, Danzig, Chelmno and others), Lw6rv early realized the importance of the south- their financial predominance and the monopolistic eastern iands served by it and concentrated all its policies applied by them rvith the support of the efforts upon trade with those regions. This proved Teutonic Order, all served to inhibit the progressof cletrimenial to trade with Western Enrope. in-which the small tradins centres within the frontiers of iield the Lw6rv merchants showed Iittle initiarive. Poland. The Great-Polish merchants'often iournied fhere are no records of tlading expeditions being to the mouths o{ the Vistula and Oder in the thirteenth undertal \t POLAND'S TRADE \\'ITH FLANDERS AT THE TURN OF THE XV AND XVI CENTURIES The first synrptoms of the coltapseof interna- teenth centurv, but this was all. On the whole the tional commodity exchange.basedon.the Novgorod- Danzigers evihced very iittle interest in trade with fluge:. axrs apPeared ctnnng the iourteenth. and Antwerp, as is evidenced bythe fact that they were fifteenth centuries. The Dutch began.to .participate most unwilling to transfer the Hanseaticfactor'y from toanevergreaterextentinforeign.trade;theybought Brugestothatport.Br AsDanzigwasthenthbchief corn and timber {rom Prr.tssiaand Livonia and thlir export port of the Polish Comm6nwealth, and as its cloth drove the Flemish p_foductfrom markets where buigessessuppliecl the country with the great majority it.had reigned supreme.. Their commercial expansion, of the l!'esfei-n goocls consu'med.by ttie populitiori, while menacing to the interests of Liibeck and Flan- we mav safelv ass"umethat at the cldseof tfie fifteenth fiil?i.'t'.l':',?f:X"'l"ri,15i'iJ'.""Til*fJ?gli".,T?l:::lilit *i:*T kff:Tiy.f;::1.1.:',,$:'::?l"T: Ltibeckers strive to force the Dutch merchants to being finally liquidated in the sixteenth centurJ respect the regulations of staple trade in Bruges, and thris to preven"tthe Netherlaniersfrom penetritirrg on CONCLUSION to the Baltic. To make matters worse the Zwin began The historv of poLand,s economic relations with to silt up very, rapidly, fearing the_clangsp6us sand- Flanders hes been roughly outlined in the present banks, r'esselsbegan to avoid touching at the port. paper. Thedatagivenh&eihdonot justifyourdiawing \loreover, the Prussian,Livonian, Fngtish and 6ther ileiinitive conclusions,however, if'only"because thii merchants showed less :rnd less interest in trade study is based solelv on published mat6rial. Archival with Bruges. Antwerp becarnethe centre of Western reseirch rvould undbubtedlv divulse much new infor- European trade, aided by.the fact that foreign mer- mation, but would be hardly likelyio effectany radical chents were not incessantlyhempered at every step change in the picture presentedabove. 'l'heby the regulations of medieval regimentation of-trade. It is certain. horvbver. that commercial rela- old Hanseatic factr'ry at Biuges, symbol of the tions between Poiand ancl Flanders were established {ormer power of the proud assoclationof German at the latest towards the end of the thirteenth century, !.o-*nt, . was virtually deserted by- the end ol the and that the merchants of Wroclaw (Bresiau) and fifteenth century. Probably the first to abandon to some extent of Cracow were instrumental in 6ring- Bnrg_eswere the Danzigers,who began to export Polish ing this about. Cracovian traders appeared in Brug6s and Littruanian timber and corn 1e Fngland and the as-early as the beginning of the fouiteenth centuiy, Netherlands in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries: and laier vears furnished indisputable eyidence irf by th.e.endof the_latter century this trade had assumed their having showed much eneigy in consolidating apositionof furLd,a.mentalimportancefortheprosperityclirect relations with Flanders as-[he chief centre o-f of the city. Relations with Flanders dwindled intb trade in Western Europe. The largest turnover in insignificance il Danzig's etonomic 1ife. Only two Polish-Flemish trade was noted during the closing vesselsentered I)anzig from Ecluse(Sluys) in 4j4-76'from years of the fourteenth and the begiining of thE and three from Ant*erp, whilst seventv came iifteenth centurv, after which a declineset in. This 76 Amsterdam. The impoit trade from Flinders at that drop in trade was due as much to the changes Period.comprised tropical and other produce (oils, 'rvhich took place in the international system-of {igs, raisins, various kinds of rvines, and small quanti- commercial reiations as to the wars between Poland ties of cloth and salt). ;7 The volume of Danzig's and the Teutonic Order, impairing communications export trade to Flanders decreasedin like proportion: between the Baitic coast and the inland centres of only one vessel left Danzig for Ecluse ii 4go-gz polish trade. as against fifteen to Amsterulam.78 About one lait The greater part of Poiand's trade with Flanders of rve was exported to Eciuse during these years, but was accoirnted f6r by the commodities transported some 973 lasts were shipped to Amsterdam,?devidence through Poland from Hungary and the East; in this the more striking in that rye was already then one of connelion, oniy the southern regions of Poland, lying the chief items-in Danzil's trade.e ih" F'rggers upon the main-traderoutes, were engagedin commerl exportedfairlyiarge ;;;G;X;.;i;"i u'"j".i"" .;"p";;; .i!i^i""ii"gi- *iit' Fl"t'd"'i. tt ',E'it provnces to Antwerp through the g-reatPolish porltowards ihe on the othe"rhand showed little interest" in".r, maintaining end of the fifteenth and at the begiriningof the six- trade relations with Flanders. ;6 Lauffer, Daozigs Scbiffs- und lVarenverkehr am Ende rs Ibid. Eo des XV. Jh.', ibid., pp. 2r-22. Simson, Geschichteder Stedt Donzrg, Danzig r9r3, Voi. II, ?? Ibid. P r.19. ?6 Ibid. 81 Ibid. 'I RA\SL,|rED 8y .1.'f nt,;szKows K l