As to commerce, the first task which the confederation set itself to fulfil was the abolition of that early mediaeval condition which inclined to regard the stranger in foreign parts as devoid of rights.  The efforts of the confederation in this particular resulted in the acquisition of hundreds of privileges, secured either singly or conjointly by the cities.  The contents of the treaties are usually the same:  (1) Protection of person and goods; (2) abolition of the law which declared forfeit to the feudal lord such goods as, for instance, might happen to fall from a wagon and thereby touch the ground; (3) the abolition of the strand right, which had secured to the owner of the shore land the jetsam and flotsam of wrecked or stranded vessels; (4) the concession of legal procedure to the debtor; (5) liberation from the duel and other forms of the “divine judgment” in legal procedure; (6) the reduction of duties; (7) permission to sell at retail, as for example, cloth and linen by the ell—­a privilege previously accorded only to natives.  These are but a few of the privileges secured, the most important of which, however, remains to be mentioned.  This was the establishment of branches and bureaus in the most frequented commercial centres abroad.  On the other hand, the confederation never had the remotest intention of granting similar privileges to the nations from which these concessions had been secured, such as the English, Flemish, Norwegians, Danes, and Russians.  On the contrary.  In Cologne, for example, foreign merchants were permitted only three times a year and then for a period of three weeks only.  Never, perhaps, in history has a monopoly been so rigidly and relentlessly enforced—­a monopoly which not only rested upon the nation at home, but which made bold incursions into the sovereignty of foreign states in order to smother their independent trade, or, as in Norway, utterly to stamp it out.

Of the two great avenues of trade, that indicated by the termini Bruges and Novgorod is first deserving of mention.  For centuries it was practically used exclusively by merchants of the Hansa, who, moreover, were forbidden to form copartnerships with foreigners, such as Russians and Englishmen.  Novgorod, well guarded against pirates and situated in the navigable Volkhov, was at that time in a sense the capital of the much-divided Russian empire.  This city, since the day of its founder, Rurik, had been the centre of Russian trade and enjoyed an almost republican independence.  From this point diverged the most frequented highways of trade to the Dnieper and the Volga.  From Russia the German merchant exported chiefly fine furs, such as beaver, ermine, and sable, and enormous quantities of wax, which to-day, as formerly, is still obtained in the central wooded parts of the country where apiculture is extensively prosecuted.  His imports, on the other hand, consisted of fine products of the loom, articles of wool, linen, and silk; of boots and shoes, usually manufactured at home of Russian leather; and finally, of beer, metal goods, and general merchandise.  It is evident, therefore, that the German merchant provided Russia—­which country was at that time industrially in a very primitive condition—­with all the necessaries required.