Johan Pyre: ein Kaufmann und sein Handelsbuch im spätmittelalterlichen Danzig. Darstellung und Edition

Abstract

This two-part work publishes for the first time the account book of the Hanse merchant Johan Pyre, a native of Danzig (Gdańsk) who traded in diverse wares with peers spanning northern Europe from King’s Lynn to Novgorod between 1421 and 1455. Orłowska’s impressive and expertly presented edition is accompanied by a substantial 448-page analysis of Pyre’s account book that not only sheds new light on commercial activity in the late medieval Baltic and North Sea, but also offers fresh insights into the credit mechanisms, trading conventions and accounting methods that underpinned the international trading networks in which Pyre played an active part for over three decades. What makes Pyre’s book especially valuable is that he traded at a challenging time, both for the Hanse and for his home city, offering a window on how periods of warfare and diplomatic crisis could influence, disrupt or divert international commercial activity. During Pyre’s lifetime the Hanse fought sporadically with Denmark between 1426 and 1441, and long-running diplomatic and economic disputes with Russian rulers could worsen unpredictably, such as in the mid-1420s when the grand duke of Novgorod imprisoned 150 Hanse merchants. At the same time, Danzig, perhaps the most important city in Prussia, witnessed a gradual deterioration of the Teutonic Order’s rule throughout the region in the early and middle decades of the fifteenth century that eventually culminated in the outbreak of the Thirteen Years War in 1454. As Orłowska shows, however, these regional and international political and diplomatic shocks did not prevent Pyre trading in wax, salt, iron, furs and clothing, among many other wares, with partners across the North Sea and Baltic world. As she also emphasizes, the political and diplomatic tension between the city of Danzig and the leadership of the Teutonic Order was not necessarily reflected in Pyre’s everyday life. Pyre’s account book records how he engaged in business with a range of individual officers from the Order and was even allowed on occasion to trade in Baltic amber, a precious commodity over which the Teutonic Order claimed a monopoly, but one that their officers clearly allowed to lapse when dealing with trusted partners such as Pyre.