Hanseatic League

The article under scrutiny herein examines fragments from a handwritten merchant’s book stored in the archive of the Nowgorodfahrer merchant association, which is one of the funds of the Archive of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. The book chronicles the commercial activities of a trading corporation in Narva during the Livonian War, providing insights spanning the years 1563 to 1577. The study focuses on the commodity lists for 1563, 1564, 1568 and 1577, which detail the internal charges applied to all goods arriving from Narva in Lübeck. The financial proceeds received from these merchants were allocated towards the organisation of collective commercial activities on behalf of the entire trade association. These activities included the maintenance of warehouses and wharves, the chartering of merchant ships, the remuneration of seafarers, mercenaries, scribes and servants, and the settlement of numerous other expenses. Utilising these records, an analysis was conducted of the product range that was characteristic of Narva exports during the Livonian War. Furthermore, a correlation was identified between fluctuations in the amount charged for these goods and the prevailing political situation in the Baltic region. The appendix to the article presents transcriptions of the studied product lists.