The Hanseatic Kontore: Foreign Trading Posts

The kontore were the Hanseatic League’s most distinctive institutions and, in many ways, the key to its commercial success. A kontor was a foreign trading post, an establishment maintained by the League in a foreign city to facilitate the trade of its member merchants. By the late Middle Ages there were four major kontore: the kontor of Bergen in Norway, the kontor of the Steelyard in London, the kontor of Bruges in Flanders, and the kontor of Novgorod in Russia. Each was governed by a council elected by the merchants of the participating cities, each had its own warehouses, hostels, and churches, and each enjoyed privileges that were, in effect, extraterritorial.

This article describes the four great kontore, beginning with Bergen in the north and the Steelyard in the west, continuing with Bruges in the south, and ending with Novgorod in the east. The article also describes the minor kontore that existed in many other cities, from Lynn in England to Polotsk in Russia.

Comparative overview of the four great kontore

Kontor	Location	First attested	Principal commodity	Closed	Population at peak (merchants)
Steelyard	London (Cannon Street)	10th c. (charter of Ethelred II, c. 1004)	English wool and cloth; wool exports to Flanders	1551 (revocation by Edward VI); wind-up 1553	100+ resident
Bruges	Flanders (Quai des Flandres area)	1250s	Flemish cloth; Italian credit; general emporium	Late 15th c. (silting of the Zwin, rise of Antwerp)	Variable, very large
Novgorod (Peterhof)	Russia (Volkhov riverbank)	1270 (Treaty of Novgorod); fortified 1270s	Furs, wax, honey from the Russian north	1474 (Hansa’s own closure); never reopened	200+ at winter fair
Bergen	Norway (Tyskebryggen wharf)	13th c.; re-organised 1360s	Stockfish (dried cod); staple of the Norwegian trade	Effective end late 16th c.	~2,000 seasonally

The kontor of Bergen

The kontor of Bergen in Norway was the smallest of the four great kontore, but it was the most isolated and, in some ways, the most distinctive. The kontor had existed in some form since the thirteenth century, and it was formalised by the Treaty of Bergen in 1293, which granted the merchants of the League the right to trade in the port of Bergen and to be judged by Hanseatic law in disputes with the Norwegians.

The kontor at Bergen was principally a fish kontor. Stockfish (dried cod, the Stockfisch of the Tyskebryggen wharf) was the principal export, and the kontor’s warehouses on the wharf at Bergen, the Tyskebryggen or German Wharf, were among the busiest in the North. The merchants of the kontor were, for the most part, drawn from the cities of the Wendish district, and they lived in the kontor’s hostels, ate in the kontor’s dining halls, and worshipped in the kontor’s church, the Marienkirche.

The kontor at Bergen was governed by a council of aldermen elected by the merchants of the participating cities, and the council had extensive powers. The council regulated the conduct of trade, arbitrated disputes among the merchants, maintained the warehouses and the hostels, and represented the merchants in dealings with the Norwegian crown. The kontor also had its own bailiff, who was responsible for the day-to-day running of the kontor and who represented the kontor in dealings with the local authorities.

The Tyskebryggen is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed 1979, the oldest of the Hanseatic inscriptions) and one of the principal tourist attractions of the city of Bergen.

The Steelyard in London

The Steelyard in London, also known as the kontor of London or the Stahlhof, was the oldest of the four great kontore. 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, and it was formalised in a series of charters that gave the merchants of the Steelyard extensive privileges 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 Steelyard had its own warehouses, its own hostels, its own church, and its own cemetery, and the merchants of the Steelyard were governed by a council of aldermen, elected by the merchants of the participating cities. 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.

The Steelyard enjoyed privileges that were the envy of other foreign merchants. The merchants of the Steelyard were exempt from most of the customs duties that other foreign merchants had to pay, they were allowed to trade freely in most of the principal towns of England, and they were judged by Hanseatic law in disputes with the English. The privileges of the Steelyard were constantly under threat, and the League spent a great deal of energy defending them. The privileges were finally revoked in 1551, in the reign of Edward VI, when the English decided that the Hanseatic monopoly of the cloth trade was no longer acceptable.

The kontor of Bruges

The kontor of Bruges in Flanders was, in the late Middle Ages, the principal emporium of the North, and it was the kontor at which the merchants of the League met the merchants of Italy, France, and Spain. The kontor had existed in some form since the 1250s, and it was formalised in a series of treaties that gave the merchants of the League extensive privileges in Flanders.

The kontor at Bruges was located in the heart of the city, near the principal market squares, and it was one of the busiest trading posts in Europe. The kontor had its own warehouses, its own hostels, and its own church, and the merchants of the kontor were governed by a council of aldermen, elected by the merchants of the participating cities. The kontor at Bruges was the principal centre of the cloth trade, and its merchants controlled a substantial part of the trade of Flanders.

The kontor at Bruges enjoyed privileges that were extensive but less so than those of the Steelyard. The merchants of the kontor were allowed to trade freely in the fairs of Bruges, they were exempt from most of the customs duties that other foreign merchants had to pay, and they were judged by Hanseatic law in disputes with the Flemings. The privileges of the kontor were constantly under threat, and the League fought several wars with the dukes of Burgundy to defend them. The privileges of the kontor were effectively ended in the late fifteenth century, when the League’s commercial position in the West began to decline.

A specific note: the Bruges kontor’s quarters were not formally separated from the rest of the city in the way that, say, the Venetian fondaco at Alexandria was. The Hanseatic merchants lived in the city, used its warehouses and inns, and were subject to the count’s general jurisdiction in criminal matters, even while enjoying commercial privileges.

The kontor of Novgorod

The kontor of Novgorod in Russia, also known as the Peterhof, was the easternmost of the four great kontore, and the kontor at which the merchants of the League met the merchants of the Russian north. The kontor had existed in some form since the 1270s, and it was formalised by the Treaty of Novgorod in 1270 and reinforced in subsequent treaties.

The Peterhof was located on the west bank of the Volkhov River, opposite the kremlin of Novgorod, and it was the principal centre of the trade between the League and the Russian north. The Peterhof had its own warehouses, its own hostels, its own church (the Church of Saint Peter, from which the kontor took its name), and its own cemetery, and the merchants of the Peterhof were governed by a council of aldermen, elected by the merchants of the participating cities. The Peterhof was the principal centre of the fur trade, and its merchants controlled a substantial part of the trade of the Russian north.

The Peterhof enjoyed privileges that were the most extensive of any of the four great kontore. The privileges were revoked in 1474, when the League closed the Peterhof in retaliation for Russian attacks on Hanseatic merchants, and the Peterhof was never reopened. The site is in present-day Veliky Novgorod; the foundations of the Peterhof are visible in the present-day kremlin area, and the archaeological museum holds finds from the kontor.

The minor kontore

In addition to the four great kontore, the League maintained a number of minor kontore in other cities. These included kontore in Lynn, Boston, and Yarmouth in England; in Brussels, Antwerp, and Mechelen in Flanders; in Kampen, Deventer, Groningen, and Stavoren in the Low Countries; in Stockholm, Kalmar, and Visby in Sweden; in Reval (Tallinn), Dorpat (Tartu), and Pernau (Pärnu) in Livonia; and in Pskov, Polotsk, Smolensk, and Moscow in Russia.

The minor kontore were governed by the merchants of the participating cities, and they were subject to the regulations of the Hansetag. The minor kontore were, in most cases, less important than the great kontore, but they were still significant channels of trade.

The decline of the kontore

The kontore began to decline in the late fifteenth century, and they were effectively extinct by the early seventeenth. The Steelyard in London was closed in 1551. The kontor at Bruges was effectively closed in the late fifteenth century, when the League’s commercial position in the West began to decline. The kontor at Bergen was the last to survive, but it too declined in the sixteenth century, and it was effectively extinct by the early seventeenth. The Peterhof in Novgorod was closed in 1474 and was never reopened.

The decline of the kontore is treated at greater length in the article on the decline and the article on the last years. For the commercial and political context of the decline, see the articles on the late period and the major conflicts.