Handel w XV wieku

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Mapa Świata Krzysztofa Kolumba - wielkie odkrycia geograficzne.
industrial changes followed the revival and expansion of the transcontinental trade routes and produced an industrial structure more akin to that prevailing in the thirteenth than in the intervening late medieval centuries

The most powerful Florentine banking companies Bardi and Peruzzi bankrupted in 1343, Western Europe lost its leading position on the markets of Levant and Russia, while western Asia became virtually unaccessible to the Italian merchants.

The Late Middle Ages is widely considered as the period of crisis but it was also the period of great opportunities which eventually led to the revitalization of economy and emergence of new economic structures which began to develop already during the period of crisis. Southern Germany emerged as one of the leading manufacturing centers, while England and Holland evolved into strong trade powers. The Italian merchants retained their leading position in European trade and established their trade bases in all important European cities. The Late Middle Ages was also marked by the emergence of big cities which evolved into trade and cultural centers. The economic recovery of the Late Middle Ages had also a big impact on revitalization of agricultural economy which remained the basis of the European economy although prosperity and wealth slowly became closely associated with trade.

Long-distance trade was most efficient by ship, including rivers as well as the seas. The period c.1380-1500 was the heyday of the Hanseatic League.

As well as bringing spices to Europe it is also quite possible that the Spice route brought with it the Black Death that first struck Europe in 1347–1351 CE. Indeed, the disease first seems to have struck China in the mid 1330s and spread along the overland trade routes, first to the Middle East and then Europe. The high mortality of the Black Death caused major social upheaval in the lands which it struck. This led to pressure on the overland trade routes as the Khanate of the Mongols collapsed and various factions vied for dominance across the Arab world. Raiding became rife and the overland routes to the East became unsafe. However, a small amount of spice still managed to find its way into Europe by way of Constantinople. But a resurgent Ottoman Empire was slowly closing-off all the trade routes and by 1453 with the fall of Constantinople the final overland route for spices into Europe was closed off. This effectively left Venice with a virtual monopoly on all spice reaching Europe by the sea routes. So confident were the Egyptians of the Venetian monopoly (they controlled the port of Alexandria from whence the spice reaced Venice) that in 1453 they intorduced a tarrif on all the spices leaving Alexandria that ammounted to a third of the total value of the spices. Obviously, the situation for the remainder of Europe was untenable and the only solution was to find the sea route to the spice lands. This was the impetus for the period in European history that later became known as 'The Age of Discovery'.

Starting with trade in coarse woolen fabrics, the Hanseatic League had the effect of bringing both commerce and industry to northern Germany.[5] As trade increased newer and even finer woolen and linen fabrics, and even silks, were manufactured in Northern Germany.[6] The same refinement of the products of industry occurred in other fields, e.g. etching, wood carving, armorer production and engraving of metals and wood-turning. In short, the century long monopolization of the sea navigation and trade by the Hanseatic League ensured that the "renaissance" would arrive in Northern Germany long before the rest of Europe.[6]

There were major wars in this time disputing who would trade with whom. The Scandinavians were pushed out by the Germans so the merchants from these towns followed the routes which the Vikings used and opened a new trade route to Russia. To organize this trade route they formed the Hanseatic League.

The dominant language of trade was Middle Low German, a dialect with significant impact for countries involved in the trade, particularly the larger Scandinavian languages, Estonian, and Latvian.

Most of the Hansa cities either started as independent cities or gained independence through the collective bargaining power of the League, though such independence remained limited. The Hanseatic free cities owed allegiance directly to the Holy Roman Emperor, without any intermediate tie to the local nobility.

Prawdopodobnie wykształciłby się jakiś układ odnośnie tego komu podlegały miasta hanzeatyckie. Miasta w granicach Cesarstwa byłyby związane z Cesarzem, a miasta w Polsce z Polską. Jest to możliwy układ, gdyż mimo iż Hanza była organizacją niemiecką, to jednak zależała w dużym stopniu od portów, które po Unii w Krewie były w ręku polskiego monarchy. Poza tym porty Polskie, z uwagi na mocniejsze podstawy należały bardziej do Jagiellonów, niż porty niemieckie do Habsburgów.

The economic crises of the late 15th century did not spare the Hansa. Nevertheless, its eventual rivals emerged in the form of the territorial states, whether new or revived, and not just in the west: Poland triumphed over the Teutonic Knights in 1466; Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow, ended the entrepreneurial independence of Hansa's Novgorod Kontor of Peterhof in 1478.

In the 15th century, tensions between the Prussian region and the "Wendish" cities (Lübeck and its eastern neighbours) increased. Lübeck was dependent on its role as centre of the Hansa, being on the shore of the sea without a major river. It was on the entrance of the land route to Hamburg, but this land route could be bypassed by sea travel around Denmark and through the Sound. Prussia's main interest, on the other hand, was primarily the export of bulk products like grain and timber, which were very important for England, the Low Countries, and later on also for Spain and Italy.

In 1454, the year of the marriage of Elisabeth of Austria to the Jagiellonian king, the towns of the Prussian Confederation rose against the dominance of the Teutonic Order and asked Casimir IV, King of Poland for help. Danzig, Thorn, and Elbing became part of the Kingdom of Poland, (1466–1569 referred to as Royal Prussia) by the Second Peace of Thorn (1466). Poland in turn was heavily supported by the Holy Roman Empire through family connections and by military assistance under the Habsburgs. Kraków, then the capital of Poland, had a loose association with Hansa.[11] The lack of customs borders on the River Vistula after 1466 helped to gradually increase Polish grain export, transported to the sea down the Vistula, from 10,000 tonnes per year in the late 15th century to over 200,000 tonnes in the 17th century.[12] The Hansa-dominated maritime grain trade made Poland one of the main areas of its activity, helping Danzig to become the Hansa's largest city.

When Bruges, Antwerp and Holland all became part of the Duchy of Burgundy they actively tried to take over the monopoly of trade from the Hansa, and the staples market from Bruges was transferred to Amsterdam. The Dutch merchants aggressively challenged the Hansa and met with much success. Hanseatic cities in Prussia, Livonia supported the Dutch against the core cities of the Hansa in northern Germany. After several naval wars between Burgundy and the Hanseatic fleets, Amsterdam gained the position of leading port for Polish and Baltic grain from the late 15th century onwards. The Dutch regarded Amsterdam's grain trade as the mother of all trades (Moedernegotie).

no one would dispute the proposition that the Dutch hegemony in the European economy was fundamentally based upon sea-power, and especially upon their maritime commerce with both the Baltic and the East Indies. In the southern Low Countries, which had enjoyed a very precocious economic growth from at least the late eleventh century, few would doubt the importance of maritime commerce with both the Baltic zone and England

szlaki handlowe – na pewno najważniejszy z nich do XV wieku ukształtowałby się w kierunku Włoch, które były na najwyższym w Europie poziomie gospodarczym. To zaś sprawiało, że ze wszystkich stron Europy właśnie tam szedł eksport cennych produktów i surowców.


Źródła silniejszej pozycji gospodarczej Polski, niż w historii faktycznej:

- zajmujemy terytoria położone bardziej na Zachód z większymi i silniejszymi miastami,

- mamy duży dostęp do morza co sprzyja handlowi i władzy zorientowanej bardziej na potęgę ekonomiczną niż terytorialną,

- mamy dobre układy z Hanzą, potężną w tym czasie organizacją handlową,

- państwo zostało zjednoczone wcześniej, więc zaoszczędziliśmy sobie wojen i energii na scalanie,


Kierunki handlu:

- Włochy,

- Hanza/Niderlandy/Anglia,

- Konstantynopol,