German merchant exported chiefly fine furs, such as
beaver, ermine, and sable, and enormous quantities of wax, which
to-day, as formerly, is still obtained in the central wooded parts of
the country where apiculture is extensively prosecuted. His imports,
on the other hand, consisted of fine products of the loom, articles of
wool, linen, and silk; of boots and shoes, usually manufactured at
home of Russian leather; and finally, of beer, metal goods, and
general merchandise. It is evident, therefore, that the German
merchant provided Russia--which country was at that time industrially
in a very primitive condition--with all the necessaries required.

Bruges, in Flanders, the western terminus of the before-mentioned
highway of commerce, was during the last centuries of the Middle Ages
approximately what London is to the world of to-day. It was, beside
Venice, the actual world-mart of the Continent, a centre where
Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Frenchmen, and High- and
Low-Germans--a motley throng--congregated to exchange their goods.
Thither the Hanseatic merchant transported wood and other forest
products; building stones and iron, the latter being still forged in
primitive forest smithies; and copper from the rich mines of Falun,
the ore from which was usually sold or mortgaged to the Lubeck
merchants. From the Baltic countries he imported grain, and from
Scandinavia herring and cod--all natural products, in exchange for
which he sent to the respective countries his own manufactured goods.
In Bruges he represented the entire northern region, both in the
giving and the receiving of merchandise, for only through his
instrumentality could the gifts of the East, such as oil, wine,
spices, silk, and other articles of luxury, which were usually
transported through the Alpine passes and thence down the Rhine to
Bruges, be distributed among the northern nations. This applies also
to the highly prized textiles of Flanders, which in those days were
sometimes sold at fabulous prices.

The other stream of Hanseatic trade terminated at London. The German
merchant sent thither chiefly French wines and Venetian silks. It was
he who attended to this traffic--not the consumer or the producer. In
exchange for these commodities he took English wool--the output being
already at that time very extensive--transporting it to the mills of
Flanders. Such was at that time the commercial relation of Germany to
England. If the latter country t