The Steelyard in London

The Steelyard, also known as the Stahlhof or the kontor of London, was the principal foreign trading post of the Hanseatic League in England, and it was the oldest of the four great kontore. The Steelyard had existed in some form since the tenth century, and it was formalised in a series of charters that gave the merchants of the Steelyard extensive privileges in England. The Steelyard was the principal centre of the English wool and cloth trade, and its merchants controlled a substantial part of the trade of England for several centuries.

This article describes the history, the privileges, and the decline of the Steelyard, beginning with the early charters of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings, continuing with the privileges of the Steelyard in the late Middle Ages, and ending with the revocation of the privileges in 1551 and the end of the Steelyard as a Hanseatic institution.

The early history of the Steelyard

The Steelyard had existed in some form since the tenth century, when the merchants of Cologne obtained the right to trade in the port of London. The earliest known charter is the grant of Ethelred II around 1004, which gave the merchants of Cologne the right to trade at the port of London and to be protected from arbitrary arrest. The charter was renewed and extended by the Norman and Plantagenet kings, and by the late Middle Ages the Steelyard was one of the most important foreign trading posts in England.

The Steelyard was located on the north bank of the Thames, in the heart of the City of London, between the present-day Cannon Street and Upper Thames Street. The site was originally a warehouse belonging to the merchants of Cologne, and it was known as the Stahlhof or steel yard, from the king’s scales that were kept there for the weighing of goods. The name was later applied to the entire kontor, and it became the common English name for the Hanseatic trading post in London.

The privileges of the Steelyard

The Steelyard enjoyed privileges that were the envy of other foreign merchants. The privileges had been granted by a series of English kings, and they had been confirmed and extended over the centuries. The principal privileges were:

The right to trade freely in most of the principal towns of England, including London, Boston, Lynn, Yarmouth, Norwich, and Bristol.
The right to be exempt from most of the customs duties that other foreign merchants had to pay. The Steelyard merchants paid only a nominal duty, and they were exempt from the prisage and butlerage that other merchants had to pay.
The right to be judged by Hanseatic law in disputes with the English. The Steelyard had its own court, presided over by the aldermen of the kontor, and the decisions of the court were recognised by the English courts.
The right to hold divine services in their own church, the Hallesche Kirche or Halle Church, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was exempt from English ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
The right to bury their dead in their own cemetery, the Hallesche Kirchhof.
The right to bear arms within the city, in self-defence and in defence of their property.
The right to be exempt from the jurisdiction of the English courts in criminal matters, except in cases of serious crime.

A useful note: the combination of privileges 1, 2, 3, and 7 in particular is what made the Steelyard an “extraterritorial” institution. The English Crown granted these privileges reluctantly, and tried to revoke them repeatedly — most notably under Edward I, Edward III, and Henry VII — but the League’s threat of embargoes and naval action forced the kings to back down each time. The privileges were, in effect, a ransom paid by the English crown to keep the Hanseatic wool trade flowing.

The privileges of the Steelyard were, in modern terms, an extraterritorial jurisdiction, and they gave the merchants of the Steelyard a substantial advantage over other foreign merchants. The privileges were, however, also a source of constant friction with the English merchants, who resented the privileges and who tried to have them revoked.

The trade of the Steelyard

The Steelyard was the principal centre of the English wool and cloth trade, and the merchants of the Steelyard were the principal channel through which the wool of England reached the markets of the Baltic. The English wool, which was the raw material of the Flemish cloth industry, was exported to Flanders through the Steelyard, and the finished cloth was imported from Flanders through the Steelyard. The Steelyard was also the principal channel through which the goods of the Baltic reached the English market, including the furs, timber, and naval stores of the Baltic, and the grain of Prussia.

The trade of the Steelyard was substantial. In the early fifteenth century, the kontor’s exports of English wool were valued at perhaps £50,000 to £100,000 per year, and the kontor’s imports of Baltic goods were valued at perhaps £30,000 to £60,000 per year. The kontor’s trade was a major source of revenue for the English crown, because the customs duties on the kontor’s trade, although reduced, were still substantial.

The conflicts over the Steelyard

The privileges of the Steelyard were constantly under threat, and the League fought several wars and concluded several treaties to defend them. The first major conflict was in the 1280s, when the English merchants tried to have the privileges revoked. The conflict was resolved by a series of treaties that confirmed the privileges of the Steelyard and that gave the English merchants some concessions.

The second major conflict was in the 1370s, when the English crown tried to revoke the privileges of the Steelyard in retaliation for the League’s support of the French in the Hundred Years’ War. The conflict was resolved by a treaty that confirmed the privileges of the Steelyard, but the English crown continued to try to revoke them.

The third and most serious conflict was in the 1460s and 1470s, when the English crown, now in the hands of the Yorkist kings, tried to revoke the privileges of the Steelyard in retaliation for the League’s support of the Lancastrian cause in the Wars of the Roses. The conflict was not resolved, and the privileges of the Steelyard remained under threat.

The revocation of the privileges

The privileges of the Steelyard were finally revoked in 1551, in the reign of Edward VI. The revocation was the result of a long campaign by the English merchants, who resented the privileges of the Steelyard, and by the English crown, which wanted to use the customs duties of the Steelyard for its own purposes. The revocation was also the result of the decline of the Steelyard itself, which had been losing trade to the English merchants and to the merchants of the new trading companies.

The revocation of the privileges was a severe blow to the League, and it marked the end of the Steelyard as a Hanseatic institution. The merchants of the Steelyard were given two years to wind up their affairs, and the kontor was closed in 1553. The Steelyard site was eventually sold, and the church and the cemetery were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. The site of the Steelyard is now occupied by Cannon Street Station, and a plaque on the station commemorates the kontor.

The legacy of the Steelyard

The Steelyard left a substantial legacy in London. The kontor was, for several centuries, one of the most important foreign trading posts in England, and the merchants of the Steelyard played an important role in the development of the English wool and cloth trade. The kontor was also an important centre of cultural exchange, and the merchants of the Steelyard brought to England not only the goods of the Baltic but also the architectural, artistic, and legal traditions of the Hanseatic world.

The legacy of the Steelyard is also visible in the place names of London. Cannon Street Station is built on the site of the Steelyard, and a plaque on the station commemorates the kontor. The name of the nearby Stahlhof or steel yard is preserved in the modern name of Stahlhof Passage, a small alley near Cannon Street Station.