Baltic seas, that is, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and England,
had become converted to Christianity. Some of them, indeed, had
embraced the Christian creed several centuries prior to this time. The
natural consequence was that a lively intercourse was cultivated upon
the two seas, especially after the crusades, which enterprises, by
opening new avenues of commerce and increasing the knowledge
concerning numerous articles of utility, had greatly augmented the
demands of the people of the Occident. The extraordinary development
of trade on the Baltic, indeed, vividly recalls the ancient commercial
activity on the Mediterranean; and the phrase, "a basin fruitful of
culture," often applied to the latter region, may with equal justice
be applied also to the former. In the beginning, Russians, Danes, and
Englishmen participated in the active trade conducted on the northern
littoral. Eventually, however, they were displaced by their German
rivals. As the northern nations upon their acceptance of Christianity
had once before formed their political and social institutions upon
German models, so they now, in such cities as Stockholm, Bergen,
Copenhagen, and others, became subject to the cultural and, above all,
the commercial influence of the German burgher.

It is interesting to note the manner in which this extraordinary
influence was secured. In later mediæval times all classes of the
population were compelled to rely upon self-help. In other words, they
were compelled to replace the defective or insufficient protection
afforded by the State by corporate bodies. Thus the merchants of a
Low-German German town, when in search of a common centre of trade,
pledged themselves by a solemn oath to a defensive and offensive
alliance and mutual furtherance; and wider alliances between the
various towns themselves soon followed. Of all these private
commercial associations none attained to greater importance than did