How Were Hanseatic Merchants Trained?
The apprenticeship system of the Hanseatic League was the principal mechanism by which the great merchant families recruited and trained their members, and the system was, in many ways, one of the most sophisticated commercial education programs of the medieval period. The system was, in effect, a kind of medieval business school, and the system produced the merchants that the League’s trade required.
Master and apprentice
The apprenticeship system was, in the first instance, a system of master and apprentice, in which a young man was bound to a master merchant for a period of several years, and the master merchant taught him the trade. The system was regulated by the merchant guilds, and the guilds set the terms of the apprenticeship, the fees, and the rights of the apprentices.
The apprenticeship was, in the first instance, a commercial education. The apprentice learned the techniques of the trade, the customs of the markets, the languages of the foreign merchants, and the laws of the kontore. The apprentice also learned the social skills that were essential for success in the trade, including the art of negotiation, the art of correspondence, and the art of socialising.
The kontor as finishing school
The apprenticeship was also a social education. The apprentice was usually sent, during his apprenticeship, to one of the foreign kontore, where he would spend several years learning the trade in a foreign city. The experience of the kontor was, for many apprentices, the formative experience of their lives, and the contacts that they made in the kontor were the basis of their future business.
The apprenticeship typically lasted for several years, and the apprentice was bound to the master merchant for the duration of the apprenticeship. The apprentice was expected to work hard, to learn the trade, and to behave with propriety, and the apprentice was entitled to receive training, food, and lodging from the master. The apprentice was also entitled to a small wage, and the apprentice could expect to receive a portion of the profits of the trade.
A network of relationships
The apprenticeship system was an important part of the social structure of the Hanseatic cities, and the system was one of the principal means by which the great merchant families maintained their position. The great families would send their sons to be apprenticed to other great families, and the system of intermarriage and apprenticeship created a network of relationships that bound the great families together.