|
THE
commercial intercourse of Scotland with
Germany dates almost, if not quite, as far back as that with Flanders,
where already in the commencement of the XIIlth Century a Scotch
Settlement at Bruges was known under the name of "Scottendyk." The oldest
document relative to Scotch-German trade is the famous letter of William
Wallace, the national Hero and champion of his country’s liberty, which
was discovered in 1829 by the German Scholar and Antiquarian Dr.
Lappenberg among the archives of the Free City of Lubeck, the renowned
chief of the Hanseatic league. It bears the date of 1297 and runs as
follows: "Andrew Moray and
William Wallace, leaders of the Scotch army, and the commonwealth of the
same kingdom send to the prudent and discreet men, our good friends, the
Senate and the commoners of Lubeck and of Hamburg greeting and a
continuous increase of sincere affection. We have been informed by
trustworthy merchants of the said kingdom of Scotland, that you on your
own behalf have been friendly and helpful in counsel and deed in all
things and enterprises concerning us and our merchants, though our own
merits did not occasion this. We are therefore the more beholden to you,
and wishing to prove our gratitude in a worthy manner we ask you to make
it known among your merchants that they can now have a safe access with
their merchandize to all harbours of the Kingdom of Scotland, because the
Kingdom of Scotland has, thanks be to God, by war been recovered from the
power of the English. Farewell. Given at Hadsington (Haddington) in
Scotland on the eleventh day of October in the Year of Grace one thousand
two hundred and ninety seven."
"We also pray you to be good enough
to further the business of John Burnet and John Frere, our merchants, just
as you might wish that we should further the business of your merchants.
Farewell. Given as above."
As will be seen, the letter was
written immediately after the victorious battle of the Scots near Stirling
and the advance of the army into Northumberland.
Previous to this date we can
scarcely speak of a regular trade between the two countries; and even up
to a much later date the development of commercial intercommunication is
slow. This is but natural, when we consider that piracy and the almost
ceaseless wars between England and Scotland, and later between the
Hanseatic League and the Kingdoms of the North, must be added to the
already universal want of safety of the traffic on land and sea.
England had during the XIVth and
XVth Centuries issued repeatedly strict orders against providing the
"rebellious Scots" with arms, flour or victuals of any kind by way of the
sea. King Henry IV had even tried to persuade the Master of the Teutonic
Order at Marienburg Konrad von Jungingen, to cease from trading with the
Scots altogether, but had only received the dignified answer, that the
Order lived in peace with all Christians and could not forbid the King of
Scotland to trade with its territories. Thereupon the English out of
revenge burn a ship from Stralsund "because it had sided with the enemy,"
and repeatedly raise complaints on account of the alleged contravening of
their trade-prohibitions.
As to the piracy of those days,
almost all seafaring nations were guilty of it. The Frisians however and
the Scots seem to have enjoyed the worst reputation. The complaints of the
suffering shipowners are very frequent. In Scotland as in other countries
men of the highest rank took part not only in trading beyond the seas, but
also in the more fascinating enterprise of procuring booty at sea by
force, an enterprise, which they considered, as their forefathers did
before them, a legitimate field of knightly prowess and adventure.
Prominent in this respect is the Earl of Mar in the beginning of the XVth
Century. Once he had with his companion Davidson taken a Prussian "Kraier"
(small ship) on her voyage to Flanders and later on tried to sell the
goods at Harfleur, where, however, they had been arrested by Hanseatic
merchants. The Parliament of Paris refused the handing over of these goods
to the proper owners on account of letters of safe-conduct granted to the
Scotsman. Moreover, the Earl of Mar, Alexander Stuart, excuses himself in
a letter written at Aberdeen and addressed to Danzig, saying that not he,
but Dutch fishermen had committed the deed
(1410). He even threatened a feud and did not
hesitate in the following year to put his threats into execution. Again
the inhabitants of Danzig, or Danskin as it is invariably written, had to
suffer most. One of their skippers, named Claus Belleken, who was about to
carry a load of salt, flour and beer from Rostock to Scotland, was
attacked by the people of the Pirate-Earl on the 6th of June 1412
near Cape Lindesnaes. They threatened to
throw him overboard, but relented and finally permitted him to escape in a
boat with three of his men. The rest of the crew were taken prisoners and
carried to Scotland, where they were employed in carrying stones for the
building of a castle in the interior of the country. Two men, Tideman v.
d. Osten and Hanneke Schole made good their flight and arrived home safely
by way of Flanders.
On the other hand the captain of a
sloop from Hamburgh sells the cargo of a plundered ship consisting of wax
and other goods in Scotland (1309). In the year
1316 a citizen of
Berwick complains, that on a "Tuesday before Easter" a ship of his
destined for Berwick, with a cargo of victuals had been seized by vessels
from Lubeck, Rostock and Stralsund. He himself had been taken prisoner,
his men killed; only by paying the sum of 50 marks as a ransom had he been
able to procure his liberty. He now prays the King for power to bring the
miscreants to justice.
In the month of December 1462 a
citizen of Danzig called Kilekanne is accused of piracy before the Scotch
Admiral Sir Alexander Napier. Thereupon the Danzig Magistrates address a
long Latin letter to Edinburgh and send a certain Letzke to assist the
accused in his trial. Examples of this kind could easily be adduced in
great number for centuries afterwards. In the public accounts of the city
of Aberdeen in the year 1596 we find an accurate statement of the
expense of executing four pirates who had plundered a ship from Danzig.
If one adds to this a great many
taxes and heavy duties of export, especially on wool and skins, the bad
construction of ships, etc., all of which tended to cripple and delay a
satisfactory development of trade: it is not to be wondered at, that the
best and most liberal intentions of the Scotch rulers as to the commercial
intercourse of Scotland with other countries were only partially realised.
And no doubt some of the best Kings of Scotland had the trade and the
shipping of their country very near at heart. William the Lion (1165 -
1214) granted "liberum ansum" to the northern towns of his kingdom and
Robert Bruce, the great patron of shipping and ship-building, towering
high above the men of his time by his far-reaching intelligence and his
practical genius as he excelled them in martial accomplishments, in a
letter to the Magistrates of Lubeck, dated April 22nd, 1321, promises all
merchants of this or any other city of "Alemannia," who "wish to visit
Scotland on account of trade, favour, assistance and protection of the
customs and liberties granted to them by former Kings of Scotland.
The Earl of March desires the
Magistrates of Danzig to make efforts for the revival of the trade between
Prussia and Scotland, which had been interrupted by the emprisonment of a
certain Caspar Lange. The letter is undated but belongs very probably to
the end of the XIVth Century.
King James II, so well known by his
own energy and public spirit, takes the merchants of Bremen with their
servants and ships under his protection and asks his friends and allies to
treat them well. (Feb. 14, 1453). This letter secured for
Bremen a direct trade with Scotland and was particularly useful because
France was one of the allies spoken of in the recommendation.
Queen Mary commanded several
Scottish men-of-war to put an end to the nuisance of piracy in Scottish
waters and to look after the safety of the vessels from Danzig, Emden and
Hamburg as well as those from France and Sweden (1550).
But these good intentions and
efforts of single individuals were not able to cope with the general
insecurity of the law and trade of which we have spoken.
After these premises we shall now
examine what German and Scottish documents tell us concerning the
commercial intercourse of both countries. Of the greatest importance in
Germany are the Baltic cities, above all Danzig, then Konigsberg,
Stralsund, Elbing, Lubeck and Greifswald; but Hamburg, Bremen, Rostock and
Wismar are also mentioned. In Scotland, Aberdeen and Leith take the first
place, followed by Perth, Dundee, St, Andrews and—up to
1333—Berwick-on-Tweed.
Beginning with the XIVth Century we
have a short, French letter of the year 1302, announcing the arrestment of
a certain Gregoire de Gorton (Gordon), a merchant: "en une nief de Lubyk
Dalemeygne, fretté d’aler (aller) vers Aberdeen en Escoce." A little later
a ship of Lubeck brings iron for the King’s castles to Scotland. A ship
from Stralsund to Scotland is burned at Berwick by the English Admiral
John Butetort in the reign of Edward I. The money contained in it is taken
as a lawful prize, because the crew had joined the Scotch enemies. King
Edward II writes with regard to these facts more than five years later
(March 13th, 1312) to the Magistrates of Stralsund, demanding the release
of English goods which had been arrested to the amount of 1100 marks. In
the year 1316 we read of the capture of a ship from Berwick by the
Lubeckers; 1319 the, goods belonging to merchants of Stralsund and Lubeck
are restored by the King’s command after having been seized unlawfully.
The cities of "Hildernesse" (Inverness), Edinburgh, St Andries (Andrews)
and Cupar, after much bickering and reproachful correspondence declare
themselves ready for a compromise with the German merchants (1348) at
Bruges. In the year 1382 a vessel from Rostock to Scotland is mentioned
and the skippers Snidewindt, Marquart Vrese and others of Lubeck are
freighting a ship with "mail armour, ropes, anchors and victuals" to the
same country. Frequent mention is made in this and the next century of
Danzig, which was then rapidly growing in prosperity, and of Königsberg,
the chief trading centre of the Teutonic Order. A ship from Danzig to
Scotland is seized by the French (1382); and the "Groszschaffer" of the
Teutonic Knights, who occupied much the same position in the commercial
branch of the Order as the Hochmeister did in its military and religious
enterprises, towards the end of the century employed Factors or "Lieger"
at Glasgow (Lettecowe) and Edinburgh, whose business it was to sell the
goods forwarded to them for their employers. The only other Liegers
employed by the Order were those of Flanders. The factor’s name at
Edinburgh was Hermann Gral, where he is mentioned till 1406.
About the same time we are told in
the accounts of the Exchequer of Scotland anent certain expenditures at
Perth, that he paid the sum of 194 pounds 6 shillings and 8 pence to
Prussian merchants for: "miremio (timber) emto, pro machinis construendis
et pro instrumends pro castris" (1382-3). How much we should like now to
hear more about these war-engines and instruments for the king’s castles,
even at the expense of a diffuse accuracy! Equally interesting is the
notice in the same Exchequer Rolls that Prussian sailors "in their
ignorance" carried away skins from Leith without paying the necessary
duty.
In the year 1386 Telchten, a skipper from Danzig, is
attacked by French pirates on his voyage to Scotland, whilst another
citizen of the same town obtains letters of safe-conduct to Glasgow, where
he goes on account of some property left by his father.
The next centuries offer us more abundant information.
The towns of Danzig and Aberdeen still maintain their prominent position.
In 1402 one Gercke Veusan sends a cargo of flour from Konigsberg to
Scotland, but his ship was lost, being taken by the English. The same
account-books of the Teutonic Order also tell us that two years later
several ships containing wheat, flour, rye, malt and wainscot to the value
of 2800 marks were sent to Edinburgh. Aberdeen in a letter dated Dec. 1,
1410, reminds the magistrates of Danzig of the old friendship existing
between Prussia and Scotland and puts her seal, as being sufficiently well
known at Danzig, to a letter of neighbouring noblemen, whilst the
magistrates of the latter place point to the privileges of their citizens
at Edinburgh "juxta ritum ab evo" (1452).
In the Rotuli Scotiæ a letter of safe-conduct is
printed in 1406 for two skippers and the servants of the Bishop of St
Andrews, who were to fetch wood from Prussia (Spruce) for the building of
their church; a similar letter is granted at about the same time to one
"John de Camford of Danskin" for ship and passengers. It is in this
century that we hear first of Scotch merchants settled at Danzig. The
trade between this port and Scotland assumes considerable proportions. The
cargo of the vessels is either addressed to German Factors in Scotland or
accompanied by a special Factor. Here also the nobility of the country
take part in trading operations. The names of John and George von Baysen
are mentioned as such, and above all the Family of the "von dem Walde" or
"van dem Wolde." A certain Henry of this ilk, so Hirsch tells us, together
with two other merchants of Danzig, sends a ship loaded with a variety of
goods to Scotland, commissioning his relative Reinhold to sell them; but
his trouble is great, when this factor commits suicide at Edinburgh. Hans
von dem Walde employs two other factors called Zegebad and Resen, in this
city. We also read of a certain Nicolaus or Claus Jerre (1421-1444), who
took part in extensive commercial enterprises and had dealings with King
James I of Scotland and his favourite Lord William Crichton at Edinburgh.
At one time he furnishes the King with a splendid beaver-hat, ornamented
with pearls to the value of seven Pounds, and the Queen with an inlaid
table valued at five Pounds. But he received no payment. The King was
murdered in 1437, and, his son and successor James II (1437-1460) refusing
to pay his father’s debts, the Diet of Hansetowns at Danzig takes the
matter in hand and threatens to arrest all Scotch goods in Prussia (1443).
In the year 1428 a Prussian merchant delivers iron "ad
usum regis" to Edinburgh; 1438 Beer from Hamburg is sent to Lord Crichton
for the coronation-festivities; 1435 a payment occurs for wood and beams
for the castle of Stirling; 1444 a ship of Aberdeen brings rye from
Stralsund. During the years 1449-1456 other payments for wood, beer and
timber for Edinburgh Castle are made. The demand for German beer,
especially that of Wismar, Rostock and Danzig, is on the increase, though
chiefly used by the rich. It was called "cerevisia Almanniæ" or "beer" to
distinguish it from the homebrewed article "ale."
Now and afterwards a long time is often taken up to
settle between the merchants of the different towns those quarrels that
had their rise in piracy. Take for instance the case of James Lauder (Jacobus
de Lawdre), who writes to the Hochmeister von Erlichhausen in the month of
August 1452 on account of the arrestment of Scotch goods. The greater part
of them had been released, but a certain Schonau of Danzig still held his
part. In the autumn of the same year he writes again complaining that
hitherto his efforts to obtain his property from Schönau had been
fruitless. He had no other way but to apply to Erlichhausen because his
predecessor in office, the late Hochmeister, had ordered the arrestment.
Finally on March 27th, 1453, the following judgment is given: "The public
notary Armeknecht testifies, that the members of the council, assembled by
the Hochmeister to settle the quarrel between the Scotch merchant Lauder,
from Edinburgh, representative of the Scotch merchants Robert Ross, John
Tuke, Patrick Ramsan (!) and others on the one side and Schönau, a citizen
of Danzig on the other, concerning certain merchandise, have decided that
the documents of the parties are unreliable and have to be sent to a
higher court." In the meantime Schönau was to pay Lauder 140 merks, "that
is 20 Merks down and 20 Merks every following Whitsunside till the amount
be reached." The report adds: "Presentibus ibidem honorabilibus viris
Willielmus Kant de Dondy (Dundee) et Thomas Wilhelmsson (Williamson)
mercatoribus de prefato regno Scotie.)" About this time mention is made
for the first time of the city of Thorn as trading with Scotland. A ship
loaded there with goods of various description to the value of 500 merks
and destined for certain Scotch ports, is plundered at Newcastle by the
English. In Leith we find the name of Jan Law, a skipper, who sailed to
and from the "Eastlands," and in Edinburgh those of the merchants William
Halyburton of Haddington and John Collen; whilst the skippers Herman Bar
and John Pape seem to have sailed with fair regularity from Danzig to
Scotland. These voyages were however not always successful. Twice, in 1463
and 1490, their cargo, consisting of wool and rabbit-skins, is taken.
Sometimes losses like these are voluntarily made good: Aberdeen, for
instance, in a letter to Danzig (1487) declares her willingness to repair
any losses caused and proved to be caused by the Scots, and Edinburgh pays
sixty-six pounds to the merchants of Danzig for damage done to their
ships. (1459). Not long after this we read of a vessel from Rostock, which
on her way to Scotland is driven by adverse winds to Bergen. In the year
1462 Danzig sends, as we have seen, a long letter to the Scotch Admiral "Napare"
(Napier) in support of her citizen Kilekanne, who had been accused of
piracy. Another citizen named Lentzke will attend the trial on behalf of
the accused.
Thus again we perceive the paralysing effect and the
grave consequences of piracy throughout this century. Indeed so frequent
were the complaints of the merchants particularly against the Scotst
that the Hanse Towns were at last driven to extreme measures.
The dreaded Earl of Mar did, as we have seen, threaten
war, when taken to account for his many outrages upon German vessels. The
Diet of the Hanse Towns at Luneburg therefore proposed to interdict all
commerce of the Baltic cities with Scotland (1412). The cities of Danzig
and Stralsund, however, refuse to support a measure of so sweeping a
character. Finally, it was agreed to prohibit for a time the importation
of Scotch wool and woollen cloths. But even this prohibition failed to
have the desired effect. It was the German staple at Brugge (Brugep),
where the cloths of Scotch wool were manufactured, that suffered most
severely under it. After continued exhortations not to remain satisfied
with halfhearted measures such as these, and after renewed acts of piracy
on the part of the Scots, Danzig at last consents, and on the gist of
August 1415 at the Hanseatic Diet at Elbing the resolution is passed to
interdict all trade with Scotland especially in woollens in the Prussian
cities also. Then the Scots gave in. Already in the following year a truce
was entered upon between Flanders and the Regent (King James being a
prisoner in England), during which further deliberations were to take
place. But the Scotch ambassadors never arrived. The Hanse Diets of 1418
and 1421 renewed the prohibition; again Flanders acts as mediator, and
finally a treaty with Scotland is concluded according to which Flanders
undertakes to compensate the Hanse merchants. Tacitly the law was allowed
to become a dead letter and trade was formally restored in 1436. During
this period protests from Scotland had not been wanting. Thus Robert, the
Regent, in the early twenties writes from Falkirk to the Hochmeister of
the Teutonic Order complaining bitterly of the restrictions on Scotch
exportation of wool, and expressing astonishment that the merchants of the
Order should be prohibited from sailing to Scotland. At the same time the
Scots and English settled in Prussia likewise complained of oppression. It
appears that the Prussian cities had not accepted the terms of the treaty
of 1437 which promised to the Scots and English the same privileges as
those enjoyed by the Hanse merchants or Easterlings in England; on the
contrary, Scotch and English merchants at Stralsund and Danzig were
treated worse than other nations. "No Scotsman nor any other man outside
the Hansa shall keep an open shop" says an old law of Stralsund (1442),
whilst at Danzig they were refused a separate house and the liberty of
trading and bartering among one another. Burdensome taxes were imposed on
them. On account of these and similar "great wickedness" of the
Magistrates they address long letters of complaint to the King of Scotland
(e.g. in the year 1423), but matters do not seem to have improved
much.
It was with an ill-concealed jealousy that the Baltic
cities observed the merchant-vessels of the West spread their sails on
Baltic waters. They were sure to put obstacles in the way of trade and did
not even shrink from open acts of violence. Fair commercial rivalry was
unknown, undesired and a thing to be suppressed with the utmost rigour of
the law. Envy and jealousy filled the citizen at the success of the
immigrant stranger. This commercial polity, which found an early
expression with regard to the pedlar’s trade in Scotch cloth in the
following prohibition of Danzig: "henceforward shall no Scotchman nor
Englishman trade in country-districts, be he who he may be "—ruled all
trade for centuries afterwards and was sanctioned in a more or less narrow
manner by all trading nations. Only now and then, when the spirit of
oppression became too palpably mischievous, a warning voice was raised.
An instance of this occurs at the Hanse Diet of Lubeck
on the 28th of May 1498, when the Burgomaster of Danzig replied to his
colleague of Hamburg, who had recommended the refusal of citizenship to
strangers, more especially to the Scotch and English, in the following
terms: "Dear Sirs, if we were to expel all our citizens that are not born
within the hanse, our city would well nigh become a desert," indicating
not only a more liberal frame of mind but also the great number of Scots
that must have been settled at Danzig about this time. Similarly the
Scots, compelled by the famine of their country, issue a decree according
to which all strangers bringing victuals to their shore should have free
access and be certain of a friendly reception. But these were exceptions,
passing moods so to speak, which in no way affected the general tendency
of the times.
Next to the dangers on sea, bad debts proved a very
grave obstacle in the way of trade-development. It was bad debts among
other reasons that caused the trade of the Teutonic Order with Scotland to
languish. Following the example of their King many Scots in the beginning
of the XIVth Century do not seem to have troubled themselves much about
the payment of their debts. In 1417 we find in the account-books of the
Order a long list of "bad debts," that is those that could not be
recovered. The city of Glasgow and the ‘Customers of Edinburgh’ are high
up in the list with fifteen pounds and twenty pounds respectively; and
there are other high-sounding names like that of the Earl of Agues
(Angus), Lord Dalkeith, Archibald Stuart, Sir John Seaton, and the Earl
Duclos (Douglas), the latter owing the large sum of 216 pounds.
Now and then we find in the documents amidst dry or
seemingly dry details, traces of unintentional humour; for example, when
in the year 1489 Heinrich Polseyne, a merchant of Stralsund, sends the
request to the Magistrates of Aberdeen to inquire into the state and the
habits of the so-called St Cuthbert’s geese of the Orkney Islands. The
matter is entered into with laudable and most obliging thoroughness.
Witnesses are called and they relate the most wonderful stories. The
birds, it appears, build their nests under the altar of the church in the
island of Fame, walk forth when mass is being read and pluck the
officiating priest by his gown. They seek their food in the sea and are
quite unfit for cooking or roasting. A stone-weight of feathers is valued
at a gold "rosenoble." Among the witnesses are Hans Skele (Scheele) and
Heinrich Worbosse, citizens of Greifswald and probably seafaring men.
Very likely Polseyne was a man of a far-reaching mind.
He wanted to make the geese better known in Aberdeen, or, in modern
phraseology, to create a market for the feathers. The odour of sanctity
once being established, a thriving trade was sure to follow. Or did
Polseyne wish to palm off the feathers of his native Pommeranian geese for
those of the famous Eiderduck?
But we must pass on to the sketch of the
Scottish-German trade during the XVIth Century, premising, as we did
before, a few general remarks relative to the political aspects of the
time.
For James IV, King of Scotland, the war of the
Hanseatic League against Denmark was fraught with dangers and
difficulties. He was applied to and urged on from two sides, by his uncle,
the Danish King, who repeatedly and most pressingly demanded men and
ships, advising him at the same time to imprison all Hanseatic traders in
Scotland, especially those of Lübeck; and by the German Emperor
Maximilian, who had written to him and to the King of France in favour of
his cities, requesting that no help should be given to Denmark. Under
these harassing circumstances James did what a wise man would have done:
he contented himself with the resources of diplomacy. In 1508 he sent an
ambassador to the Cities of Lubeck, Hamburg and Danzig advising them not
to support the Swedes against his uncle. Danzig replied that her relations
with both Kingdoms were of a friendly nature; if the King wanted to assist
the Danes, he might leave the ships of Danzig unmolested and above all try
to abolish those commercial restrictions that were still in use at
Edinburgh. In another letter
addressed to the Emperor, James complains of the boldness of the Lubeckers
and of the unjustified attacks and cruelties his merchants had to suffer
from them on the high seas. Fond of moralising, as he always is, he adds,
that the blood of Christians should much rather be spilt in fighting
against the common enemies of Christ.’ Again in 1512 he exhorts the cities
to keep the peace, or rather to conclude it; which was done in the same
year at Malmo.
Important for the development of Scottish trade during this period was the
order of Margaret of Parma, prohibiting under the pretext of danger from
the plague the importation of wool from Scotland into Flanders (1564). The
staple for cloth was consequently transferred from Bruges to Emden, a
small but rising port in Friesland.
Equally important was the foundation
of the "Fellowship of Eastland Merchants" by Queen Elizabeth, who were to
control and manage the whole trade with the Baltic cities by means of
factors or "liegers," and to compete with the still powerful association
of the Hanseatic League. In almost all cities on the coast of Prussia
settlements of English and Scottish merchants were now established.~ Trade
with England and Scotland flourished, all the more since the direct
communication between one port and the other without the intermediate
stage of a "staple," became more and more usual.
On the other hand great obstructions
to trade were still experienced in the insecurity of the water-ways, most
of all, however, in the terrible scourge of the Middle Ages, the Plague.
In the very year 1500 we find a ship of Danzig, suspected of the plague at
Aberdeen. The cargo is burned; the sailors are for fifteen days confined
in certain houses. Edinburgh also adopts strict measures with regard to
ships coming from the plague-stricken Danzig
(1564).
Their crews are being isolated on a small island
in the Firth of Forth, ship and cargo are disinfected. The landing of
either crew or goods is forbidden on pain of death in 1569. Two brothers,
Robert and Nicolaus Liclos, Scotsmen, died of the plague at Danzig in 1564
and two of their friends are commissioned from Edinburgh to look after
their property. In 1566, Queen
Mary writes to the magistrates of the same city in favour of a certain
David Melville who goes to Danzig on a similar errand. This danger from
the plague is threatening till far into the XVIIth and XVIIIth Century. As
late as 1653 a vessel from Konigsberg is stopped at Dundee as suspected.’
Complaints concerning
piracy are still frequent and somewhat monotonous. They are, however,
important as affording an idea of the extent of the trade between Germany
and Scotland. In the year 1512, a Scotsman accuses natives of Lubeck
before the King of Denmark for having seized his ship and its freight of
timber on the voyage to Scotland; Lubeck, on the other hand, complains of
the capture of two of her ships and demands—" mindful of the old
friendship between the two peoples"—restitution. She also asks that her
vessels be not molested on the voyage to Bergen, the great emporium of the
northern trade in those days; she even uses threats and announces her
fleet ready to protect her trade in the northern regions against all
comers, French or Scotch alike. A similar case happened in the year 1591,
when the good ship "Noah’s Ark" of Danzig was shipwrecked on the coast of
Unst in the stormy month of October. The owners sent one Conrad von
Bobbert to lay their claims before the Scotch authorities. Better and more
effective was the resolution of
Lübeck and Rostock henceforward to arm their boats to Bergen and only to
sail in company.Whilst a
tolerable security of trade was thus being enforced in these regions by
the energetic action of the Hanse Cities, the trouble broke out in another
quarter. The Scots complain of the Eastland captains for disturbing the
fishing off the Orkney and Shetland islands, and the Hanse merchants of
cruelty and atrocities committed against their skippers on the part of the
natives. Many letters are exchanged on this subject. King James V writes
to Bremen in 1540 and the
Magistrates of Bremen address a long Latin letter, written in strong
terms, to Queen Mary, in which the pirates are called "Harpyas." A certain
Earl of Orkney seems to have taken a prominent part in these acts of
piracy.
Nor are the "deditissimi
consules et senatus Imperialis civitatis Lubece" behindhand. A letter of
theirs to the Regent of Scotland (1557) tells the woeful tale of a ship
taken by French "classionarii" (pirates) and brought into the port of "Monrosse"
(Montrose). The writers urge the release of the vessel (Oct. 8) since
there was no war between Her Majesty and the Hanse Towns. Another letter,
dated Oct. 23rd, follows, praying for expedition of the matter as well as
for compensation. At last, in the year 1559 the aggrieved merchants of the
said cities and the owners of the plundered vessel, the "Saint Martin,"
resolve to send Joachim Halspag as their delegate to Scotland with full
powers to demand final satisfaction.
In August 1564 Danzig
writes to Edinburgh in favour of a certain H. Biers, who had travelled to
Scotland on a like errand. He
succeeds in obtaining a decree for compensation, the goods having been
taken unjustly.
Nor are other causes for complaints
wanting. Thus Queen Mary’s Regent in
1545 writes to the Magistrates of Lubeck anent
the conduct of a certain Bockard Cloch, who, whilst a law-suit was
pending, had absconded with his ship causing great loss to the city of
Edinburgh, but more especially to a citizen of Malmö, who claimed the
fourth part of the cargo. Worse still is the case of John Knape, a skipper
from Wismar in Mecklenburg, on whose account the Duke Ulrich writes a long
Latin letter to Edinburgh in 1566. It appears that this Knape had sailed
to Scotland three years ago in a vessel belonging to two merchants of
Wismar. Since then no news had been received from him. His wife and family
were living in poverty in his native place. In the meantime it
transpired that he had sold the cargo on
his own account and had taken service under the Queen of a foreign
country. In February of the same year the Magistrates of Wismar likewise
addressed the Queen praying that their agent might be permitted to bring
ship and cargo to Danzig, or to load coal in case of its being empty.
There is quite a modem flavour in
the account of some sailors from Hamburg who are tried and fined at
Aberdeen in 1549 for fighting and assault.
Of greater importance is the
prolongation of a treaty between Countess Anna of Oldenburg and
Delmenhorst and the Scottish Crown, which had been concluded one hundred
years previous in 1447.
As to the regular shipping trade
during this century the names of the same cities occur again that we met
with in the preceding century. But Lubeck and Hamburg have lost somewhat
of their proud position compared with the growing importance of the Baltic
cities of Prussia and Poland.
In 1508 we find the importation of
salt from Stralsund (Trailsound) recorded; in 1510 that of masts for
King’s ships from Danzig. Macpherson in his Annals of Commerce
talks of "many Scotch ships in the East-Seas." In 1522-23 several vessels
from Konigsberg and Danzig to Dundee are mentioned, one from Greifswald (Grippiswold)
in 1513. During the years 1539-1542 a great danger threatened the
commercial relations between Scotland and Pommerania. Two skippers, Hans
Knake and Hans Steffen from Anclam, which in the documents is called
Tanglunen, complain that the cargo of their ship after having been brought
into the port of Aberdeen by French pirates had been arrested there. The
King of Scotland refers the matter to his highest court of justice and the
plaintiffs appear in person. But although they return home after due
decision, "multo locupletiores," as the report has it, yet they are not
satisfied, but succeed by turning and twisting of their case to persuade
the magistrates and the Duke of Pommerania that they have suffered
grievous wrong. Letters are consequently issued by these authorities
commanding the arrestments of the goods of the Scottish merchants in
Stralsund. It needed the dignified, clear and convincing epistles of King
James V, who encloses a copy of the court’s sentence to the Duke to set
matters right.
About the same time the King writes
to the Magistrates of Hamburg recommending his messenger Murray, who was
to buy horses trained for tournaments (1538).
In 1524 a citizen of Edinburgh, Edward Crawford, who is
about to travel to Danzig for the purpose of buying grain, obtains a
letter of safe-conduct from the Scottish Regent, whilst Lord Douglas, on
the 16th of March 1542, writes to the English Admiral Lisle asking him to
extend his protection to a certain William Fehn, the master of a ship of
40 tons, about to sail for Danzig, thence to return with victuals so that
he "might remain unmolested by English ships." In a deed of purchase dated
May 5, 1533, mention is made of the trade between Edinburgh and Danzig. A
ship from the latter port lies in the harbour of Leith in 1544. It is the
same which is afterwards wrongfully taken by Patrick Bothwell, who has to
compensate the Danzig owner and his factor Fanholf in Edinburgh by making
over to them certain properties in land.
About this time there seems also to
have been some commerce between Glasgow and Danzig or Poland. It was
chiefly in the hands of the rich house of Archibald Lyon. After his death,
his son-in-law George Morison became the head of the firm. He and his ship
perished on a voyage to Danzig.
In 1546 a vessel from Dundee
sails to the same city; three years later a ship from Hamburg brings soap
to Edinburgh. Beer is imported from Stralsund and wood for the repair of a
church from Rostock to Dundee, the beams to be sixteen yards in length.
It is in this century that we find
the first indications of a gradually increasing emigration from Scotland
to the Baltic cities and to Poland. The captain of a ship from Edinburgh
named Dawson receives permission to carry five merchants to Danskin, and
James Foular six, hailing from Peebles, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dumfries
(1555). In 1589 two citizens of Edinburgh become security
for six "Polish Cramers," that is Scotsmen who were going to Poland as
pedlars. Their names are: John Knox, James Hunter, Macmillan, Carwood,
Gilchrist and Muir. They sail for Konigsberg.
James Gowan and Robert Jack, Scotch merchants, dwelt in
Trailsound (Stralsund); the brothers Ancroft in Greifswald (Grippiswold).
The chief share in the trade with the East-lands is
still claimed by Aberdeen. Gilbert Menzies, a native of this town, imports
grain from Danzig in 1563, and in the following year several ships are
freighted with victuals from the Baltic port to the same place. One of the
ships is called the "Andrew"; another one boasts of the curious name of
"Ly-by-the-fire" (1556). Indeed the commerce between the two cities
had by this time become so profitable, that a special duty was imposed on
all goods imported from Danzig to Aberdeen, a duty which was large enough
to pay for the expense of the great light in the gable of the church of St
Ninians on the Castle Hill.
Of the last quarter of the century and the first thirty
years of the next we are particularly well informed through the invaluable
entries of Wedderburne of the "Compt Buik" fame. The list of ships sailing
from Dundee extends from the year 1580 to 1618. |
