As the grand object of the League was to secure to themselves the profits arising from the mutual supply of the north and south of Europe, with the merchandize of each, they had agents in France, Spain, &c. as well as in the countries on the Baltic.  England, at this period, did not carry on much commerce, nor afford much merchandize or produce for exportation; yet even in it the Hanseatic League established themselves.  Towards the end of the thirteenth century they had a factory in London, and were allowed to export wool, sheep’s skins, and tin, on condition that they kept in repair the gate of the city called Bishopsgate:  they were also allowed the privilege of electing an alderman.

Bruges, which is said to have had regular weekly fairs for the sale of the woollen manufactures of Flanders so early as the middle of the tenth century, and to have been fixed upon by the Hanseatic League, in the middle of the thirteenth, as an entrepot for their trade, certainly became, soon after this latter period, a city of great trade, probably from its connection with the Hanseatic League, though it never was formally admitted a member.  We shall afterwards have occasion to notice it in our view of the progress of the Hanseatic League.

As the commerce of the League encreased and extended in the Baltic, it became necessary to fix on some depot.  Wisby, a city in the island of Gothland, was chosen for this purpose, as being most central.  Most exaggerated accounts are given of the wealth and splendour to which its inhabitants rose, in consequence of their commercial prosperity.  It is certain that its trade was very considerable, and that it was the resort of merchants and vessels from all the north of Europe:  for, as the latter could not, in the imperfect state of navigation, perform their voyage in one season, their cargoes were wintered and lodged in magazines on shore.  At this city was compiled a code of maritime laws, from which the modern naval codes of Denmark and Sweden are borrowed; as those of Wisby were founded on the laws of Oleren, (which will be noticed when we treat of the commerce of England during this period,) and on the laws of Barcelona, of which we have already spoken; and as these again were, in a great measure, borrowed from the maritime code of Rhodes.

But to return to the more immediate history of the Hanseatic League,—­about the year 1369 their power in the Baltic was so great, that they engaged in a successful war with the king of Denmark, and obliged him, as the price of peace, to deliver to them several towns which were favourably situated for their purpose.