Fatherland.

With good reason the world's commerce is to-day accepted as one of the
most imposing and unique phenomena of our time. It is but necessary to
consult a statistical handbook in order to obtain a conception of the
gigantic figures involved in the exports and imports of the
multifarious articles of commerce to and from all countries--figures
whose magnitude precludes the possibility of forming an adequate
conception of their true significance. No less astonishing are the
means employed by traffic to-day to develop our system of credit and
our complex and useful web of communication. One fact, however, should
be borne in mind: namely, that our commerce is of comparatively modern
growth. The two factors chiefly responsible for its development were:
(1) The great voyages of discovery which began at the close of the
fifteenth century and opened a theretofore unsuspected field of
production and consumption; and (2) the utilization of steam, that
great triumph of the nineteenth century. Perhaps a brief sketch of
that earlier commercial development which immediately preceded our
extensive modern commercial network may not be unwelcome to the reader
desirous of contrasting the narrower but nevertheless fascinating
mediæval conditions of the German Hansa with those prevailing in our
present mercantile world. Let us inquire how the confederation of the
Hansa arose, and, after briefly sketching its external history, review
in greater detail its commercial and industrial methods, its art work,
domestic life, and constitution.

The development of the German Hansa may be traced to two principal
sources: (1) The associations formed by German merchants abroad, and
(2) the union established by the Low-German cities at home.