eventually enjoying the privilege of a private mint--so also was the
deplorable disunion existing among the German people mirrored in the
innumerable road and water taxes. Above Hamburg, along a road about
twelve German miles in extent, there were not fewer than nine customs
stations. Fortunately the tariff was not complicated, but was levied
on the freight of the ship or wagon, or estimated by the bale or box
irrespective of value or the quality of the goods under inspection.
Upon the presented crucifix the merchant, aided occasionally by his
cojurors, solemnly swore to the correctness of his representations
concerning the goods carried by him, the oath, as is well known, being
very frequently brought into requisition in all judicial and
commercial transactions during mediæval times.

The Hansa ships were usually round-bellied, high-boarded craft with
one mast, and flew the pennant of their home port. They were
comparatively broad and built of heavy planks, and could easily be
transformed into war vessels by furnishing them with a superstructure
known as the _castell_ ("castle") in which catapults and archers could
be placed. In size they were probably as large as the trading vessels
which cross the Baltic to-day. That they were skilfully handled is
evident from the fact that a contemporaneous report mentions a trip
from Ripen in Jutland to Amsterdam as having been successfully made in
two days. As regards the laws of navigation, a point especially
noteworthy was the talent displayed in organizing fellowship unions.
Reference is not here made to the habit of the merchants in sailing in
squadrons so much as to the peculiar institutions which regulated the
life on board--institutions which have recently been justly designated
as the most perfect expression of that executive ability which
characterized the close of German mediævalism. An account of these
institutions dating from the middle of the sixteenth century has