The Hanseatic League was not so much a league of cities as it was a league of merchant associations within the cities of Northern Germany and the Baltic. Trade in the middle ages was a dangerous and risky business and the only way for merchants to protect themselves was by travelling together. This banding together of merchants on the road led to their alliances at home as well. The Hansa was founded in the twelfth century by an alliance between the northern towns of Hamburg and Luebeck which lay on opposite sides of the base of the Danish peninsula. Luebeck was in a position to capitalize on a large commodities market in herring, but one thing held Luebeck back. With no refrigeration or canning the shipping of a highly perishable commodity like fish was problematic. Hamburg, on the other side of the Jutland peninsula, had easy access to the salt produced in the salt mines at Kiel, and salting and drying of meat and fish made transport and distribution possible.…
