Steelyard

For other uses, seeSteelyard (disambiguation).

TheSteelyard,from theMiddle Low GermanStâlhof(sample yard),was thekontor(foreign trading post) of theHanseatic LeagueinLondon,and their main trading base in England, between the 13th and 16th centuries. The main goods that the League exported from London werewooland from the 14th century woollen cloths. An important import good wasbeeswax.The kontor tended to be dominated byRhenishandWestphaliantraders, especially fromCologne.

The Steelyard was not the only Hanseatic trading post in England. There were a number of Hanseaticfactorieson the English east coast, like the remainingHanseatic warehouseinKing's Lynn,Norfolk.

Name

The name seems to indicate the practice of tagging samples (stalen) of inspected wool with aseal.

InCharles Kingsford'scommentary onJohn Stow'sA Survey of London(1598 edition) the Middle Low German nameStâlhofis the older usage, appearing as early as 1320.Kingsford traces the first reference to it as the Steelyard to 1382. In 1394 an English merchant writing fromDanzighas:In civitate Londonia[...]in Curia Calibis:"In the city of London[...]at the court of steel" (chalybs). Kingsford concludes that Steelyard is a mistaken translation ofStâlhof.

The kontor was also called theEsterlinghall( "Easterling hall" ) in Middle English, in 1340 for the first time.

Location

A commemorative plaque placed in 2005 atCannon Street station,near the location of the Steelyard

The Steelyard was located on the north bank of theThamesby the outflow of theWalbrook,in theDowgateward of theCity of London.The site is bounded by Cousin Lane on the west, Upper Thames Street on the north, and Allhallows Lane on the east, an area of 5,250 m²or 1.3 acres. It is now covered byCannon Street stationand commemorated in the names of Steelyard Passageand Hanseatic Walk. The Steelyard, like other Hansa stations, was a separate walled community with its own warehouses on the river, its ownweigh house,chapel,counting houses,aguildhall,cloth halls, wine cellars, kitchens, and residential quarters.The kontor could be accessed by sea-going ships.

As a church the Germans used formerAll-Hallows-the-Great,since there was only a small chapel on their own premises.

In 1988 remains of the former Hanseatic kontor, once the largest medieval trading complex in Britain, were uncovered by archaeologists during maintenance work onCannon Street Station.

History

A plan of the Steelyard fromJohann Gustav Droysen's Atlas, claimed to be as it was in 1667

Merchants from Cologne bought a building at the corner of Thames Street and Cousin Lane in the 1170s, though they seem to have used it as early as 1157, and it became known as the "Germans' Guildhall" (Gildahalda teutonicorum).Henry II of England granted very extensive privileges to traders from Cologne in 1175/76 in an attempt to limit the power of Flemish merchants who then controlled the English wool trade. This group from Cologne effectively controlled the trade of Rhine wine and acquired a building called thegildhallafrom then on too.They are alluded to in theDe itinere navali,an account of crusaders from Lübeck for whom the kontor arranged the purchase of a replacement cog in the summer of 1189.The privileges of the Guildhall existed alongside individual cities' privileges.Low German traders from the area around the Baltic Sea appeared in England too around this time, but they directed their trade more at English towns up north.

Hanseatic kontor

The merchant communities fromWestphaliaand theRhinelandand from the Baltic formed a joint venture by the mid 13th century. They took over the hegemony in the trade with England from the Flemings later in the century and even began to get involved in the export of English wool to Flanders.

The first mention of aHansa Almaniae(a "German Hansa" ) in English records is in 1282,concerning merely the community of the London trading post. This was a union of town merchant guilds (hanses) from Cologne, or the Rhineland, andLübeckandHamburg.It was maybe more the result of government pressure from London and the English king than a free decision.The settlement was only later made official as the Steelyard and confirmed in tax and customs concessions granted byEdward I,in aCarta Mercatoria( "merchant charter" ) of 1303. This led to constant friction over the legal position of English merchants in the Hanseatic towns and Hanseatic privileges in England, which repeatedly ended in acts of violence. Not only English wool but finished cloth was exported through the Hansa, who controlled the trade in English cloth-making centres.

Trade conflicts

After thetreaty of Stralsundthe Hansards drove out rival merchants from Scania. English traders were arrested and their goods confiscated. The English king imposed newtonnage and poundagein 1371/72, that covered Hanseatic goods too. The Hanseatic towns and traders thought it violated their privileges. At the same time English traders entered the Baltic and especially Prussian trade, demanding equal reciprocal trading rights. A trade conflict began in 1385 when an English privateer fleet seized a number of Hanseatic ships nearBrugesin theZwin.Some ship were Prussian and the grandmaster of theTeutonic Orderconfiscated English goods. Richard II retaliated and confiscated Prussian goods in England to compensate the English merchants. When negotiations failed, the grandmaster banned English imports and exports of forests to England in 1386. The compromise at the treaty of Marienburg of August 1388 restored trade ties but failed to address the underlying problems. But when a new grand master cancelled the treaty of Marienburg in 1398 after Prussian towns complained, Henry IV did not retaliate and instead reconfirmed the Hanseatic privileges. A second treaty of Marienburg and a treaty between England and the wider Hanseatic League with promises about compensation and protection against pirates were agreed in 1405, followed by treaties in 1408 and 1409. However the underlying problems of tonnage and poundage and the lack of reciprocal rights for English merchants remained.

A reproduced painting of the Steelyard (Souvenir of the British Exhibit in the Hall of Nations IPA Leipzig, 1930)

By 1420 the Hanseatic League's trade in England had decreased in importance.Cologneremained dominant in the Hanseatic trade on England in the 15th century, andDanzighad a dominant role too.

The English Parliament in 1431 increased poundage by half for foreign merchants. In 1434 theTagfahrt(de) (the Hanse representative body) finally began negotiations and started a blockade at the same time. The conflict was resolved in 1437 with the Second Treaty of London, when Hanseatic privileges were renewed and the new duties were removed. The Teutonic grandmaster did not ratify the treaty, pressed byDanzig,but England still enforced it despite unfulfilled demands for equal privileges for English traders in 1442 and 1446.

Another English attack on Hanseatic ships, this time a Wendish and Prussian salt fleet, in May 1449 led to another crisis.Lübeckinstructed German traders to leave England in 1450 and blocked English trade through the Øresund in 1452 by an agreement with Christian I of Denmark. England was weakened after theHundred Years' Warand briefly restored the Hanseatic privileges, though another salt fleet from Lübeck was taken in 1458. Incidents like that kept tensions high.

Anglo-Hanseatic War

Further information:Anglo-Hanseatic War

Edward IVheld the Hanseatic League responsible, when English ships were attacked in the Øresund by Danes in 1468, and German merchants in London were arrested and convicted by the crown council. The Hanseatic cities were open to negotiation but rejected any common Hanseatic liability and called for an embargo against England. The merchants of Cologne were exempted from the ruling and could trade unhindered, which served to foment dissension among Hansards.

MeanwhileHenry VIwas put back on the throne in 1470 as part of theWars of the Roses.Cologne was temporarily excluded from the League and its privileges in April 1471. Edward IV was helped by Hanseatic ships in his landing in May to retake power, but he reaffirmed Cologne's exclusive privileges in July. A war of piracy called theAnglo-Hanseatic Warbegan against England, the main effort came from ships from Danzig, and much of the rest from Lübeck. One of their captains was the famousPaul Beneke,who commanded the formidablePeter von Danzig.

Negotiations began in 1473 and Edward IV was open to make large concessions for peace. Hanseatic demands were very excessive and Edward did not transfer the property of the Steelyard and the outposts in Lynn and Boston to the Hanseatic towns, but they achieved a very favourable peace from the English commissioners inUtrecht in 1474:many regulations from the Second Treaty of London of 1437 were reconfirmed and the demand for reciprocity on behalf of English merchants was dropped, though this result was against the background of the reduction of the Hanseatic trade's importance over the 15th century.

After the Anglo-Hanseatic War

In 1475 the Hanseatic League purchased the London site outright and it became universally known as the Steelyard. The kontor then required that Hansards lived on the Steelyard.In exchange for the privileges the German merchants had to maintainBishopsgate,one of the originally seven gates of the city, from where the roads led to their interests inBostonandLynn.

The Triumph of Riches

The Triumph of Poverty

Danzig and Cologne were still the dominant players in the Hansa's trade on England in the 16th century, but Hamburg achieved an important role by shipping German fabrics and Icelandic cod to England and English ink to the Netherlands. Hamburg's merchants became over time less involved in active trade with England, and let other parties carry goods instead.

Members of the Steelyard, normally stationed in London for only a few years, sat for a famous series of portraits byHans Holbein the Youngerin the 1530s,portraits which were so successful that the Steelyard merchants commissioned from Holbein the allegorical paintingsThe Triumph of RichesandThe Triumph of Povertyfor their Hall. Both were destroyed by a fire, but there are copies in theAshmolean MuseuminOxford.Later merchants of the Steelyard were portrayed byCornelis Ketel.There is a fine description of the Steelyard byJohn Stow.

Later conflicts and closures

The Steelyard's privileges were suspended in 1552.

One group that shipped trade goods for the merchant of Hamburg when they moved out of English active trade, was theCompany of Merchant Adventurers of London.They got a residence for 10 years in Hamburg in 1567. Hamburg became a crucial market for the Merchant Adventurers after the loss of the Dutch market in theDutch Revolt.Hanseatic trade with England was centred in Hamburg in those days.

Other Hanse towns resented the success of the Merchant Adventurers and wanted to secure the old favorable trade privileges that England suspended years ago. A Tagfahrt pressued Hamburg to close the Merchant Adventurers' trading post after the end of the agreement and Hamburg obeyed. England responded with countermeasures.

Queen Elizabethsuppressed the Steelyard and rescinded its privileges in 1598.James Ireopened the Steelyard, but it never again carried the weight it formerly had in London.Most of the buildings were destroyed during theGreat Fire of Londonin 1666. The land and buildings remained the property of the Hanseatic League, and were subsequently let as warehouses to merchants.

After the end of the Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League was never officially dissolved but is considered to have disintegrated in 1669.Lübeck,HamburgandBremenwould however continue to be known as the "Hanseatic Cities". Consulates of the Hanseatic cities provided indirect communication betweenNorthern GermanyandWhitehallduring the European blockade of theNapoleonic wars.Patrick Colquhounwas appointed asResident MinisterandConsul generalby the Hanseatic cities ofHamburgin 1804 and byBremenandLübeckshortly after as the successor of Henry Heymann, who was alsoStahlhofmeister,"master of the Steelyard". Colquhoun was valuable to those cities through their occupation by the French since he provided indirect communication betweenNorthern GermanyandWhitehall,especially in 1808, when the three cities considered their membership in theConfederation of the Rhine.His sonJames Colquhounwas his successor as Consul of the Hanseatic cities in London.

Lübeck, Bremen and Hamburg only sold their common property, the London Steelyard, to theSouth Eastern Railwayin 1852.The buildings were demolished in 1863.Cannon Street stationwas built on the site and opened in 1866.

Organisation and life

Caius Gabriel Cibber:The arms of the Steelyard (c. 1670) on display in theMuseum of London

The Steelyard was, like the other kontors, a legal person established as a merchant corporation (universitas mercatorum) in a foreign trading city to facilitateHanseatictrade. It had its own treasury, seal, code of rules, legal power to enforce rules on residents and administration.Security was the primary reason for establishing kontors, but they were also important for inspecting the quality of trade goods and diplomacy with local and regional authorities.

The Steelyard was led by an alderman, who was the chief juridical authority and diplomatic representative. There was also an English alderman from the late 14th century, an arrangement that was unique to London. The aldermen were assisted byachteinen,assistants or deputies. Around the mid 15th century the position of clerk, who was legally trained and performed secretarial duties. The Hanseatic merchants in London were grouped in geographical categories called "thirds" (German:Drittel). One third was formed by the area ofCologne,the left bank of the Rhine andGuelders.A second by the Wendish, Saxon and Westphalian towns and the right bank of the Rhine. The final third was made up of Livonian, Prussian and Gotlandic towns. The German alderman and his deputies were not allowed to come from the same third, so representation of all regional merchant groups' interests was ensured. A similar division of third existed at theKontor of Bruges,but the London thirds had much less independence.

The Hansards lived in the Steelyard at a relatively closed off area, more so than atBryggen,and they certainly were not as integrated into the host city as at thekontor of Bruges.They had however many ties with Londoners, for example Englishmen acted asexecutorsfor Hansards, and merchants rented rooms from the English, so they were not nearly as segregated as atNovgorod'sPeterhof.The kontor was in the middle of the town on the Thames, but this also made it easy to block off.London was a city with a more cosmopolitan, urban flair than the average Hanseatic hometown.Merchants operating out of the Steelyard were granted certain privileges and were exempt from customs duties and some taxes.In effect, the Steelyard was a separate and independent community, governed by the codes of the Hanseatic League, and enforced by the merchants' native cities.

The Steelyard had its own statutes, like any kontor, written inMiddle Low German,the main language of the Hanseatic merchants. It applied to all traders of the Hanse who resided in London. In the 14th and early 15th century, most rules were introduced by the kontor's merchants, but after 1474 legislation was decided by the Hanseatic hometowns.

Trade

The main export from England was wool, but from the late 14th century cloth became an important export good. The importance of London as an export harbour grew with this shift. London also supplied luxury goods, like spices and literature. Trade in London was not controlled by the Hansards, and they met traders from various places in Europe, offering the availability of exotic goods but showing also new ideas and customs.

Beeswaxand fur were the most important of the imports goods, but the Hansards also imported salted herring,stockfishand beer to London.

Steelyard balance

Main article:Steelyard balance

The Steelyard possibly gave its name to thesteelyard balance,a type of portablebalance,consisting of a suspended horizontal beam. An object to be weighed would be hung on the shorter end of the beam, while weights would be slid along the longer end, till the beam balanced. The weight could then be calculated by multiplying the sum of the known weights by the ratio of the distances from the beam'sfulcrum.

Gallery

• 
  Georg Giesefrom Danzig, 34-year-old German merchant at the Steelyard, painted in London byHans Holbeinin 1532
• 
  Hans of Antwerp 1532
• 
  Hermann Wedigh 1532
• 
  Hermann Hillebrandt Wedighof Cologne; 1533
• 
  Dirk Tybis of Duisburg; 1533
• 
  Cyriacus Kale 1533
• 
  Derick Born (1533);
• 
  Derick Berck (painted in 1536)

External links

• Holbein portrait of Derich Born, 1533:one of the Steelyard portraits
• German Embassy; Hanseatic London, 26 September 2005
• Grant David Yeats,A Biographical Sketch of the Life and Writings of Patrick Colqhoun,London: G. Smeeton, 1818.