Abstract
Hamburg was the main north German town trading with the western North Atlantic region in the period between 1450 and 1650. Other towns, such as Lübeck, Wismar and Rostock also called at Bergen, but the contact of German seafaring merchants with Iceland was dominated by men from Hamburg. Even after the closing of the island to all except Danish-Norwegian merchants by the Danish kings, the trade with Hamburg continued and partly bypassing the warehouse in Glückstadt. The main export commodities were grain and cloth, while back came fish and sulphur, besides some articles of minor significance. The Shetland trade also had some importance for the Hamburg merchants, importing fish and exporting grain and fishing material. In general, the North Atlantic trade was of minor importance in the total of the Hamburg trade which was dominated by transactions with western (Holland, England, France) and south-western (Portugal, Spain) Europe. The highest profits were made in that sphere.
Highlights
The trade with Iceland was a sector with strong competition due to the very substantial profits to be made
In the year 1560 Frederik II tried to exclude all foreigners from the trade with Iceland but two years later the Hamburg merchants secured privileges on several harbours on the island
John assign to Hennyngh Raven, Hinrick Vramen, Hans Help, Hans Hobingk, Hinrick van Wynßen, Hinrick Rumeherd, Kersten Lubben, Detleff Hovesschen, Bernd Engelken, Everd Smyd and all other members of the brotherhood of the saints Anne, Gerlaci et Olavi founded by the society of Icelandfarers an altar, an area and a grave in their church and promise to sing each week on Monday and Tuesday a mass as well as to celebrate twice each year memorials for the dead
Summary
Everything relevant to the early commercial and cultural relations between Hamburg and Iceland seemed to have been said with the appearance of Ernst Baasch’s treatise on Die Islandfahrt der Deutschen, namentlich der Hamburger (The Voyage of the Germans, especially the Hamburg Merchants to Iceland) of 1889. After 1945 did a new approach to the German-Icelandic history develop that made new research in relation to Hamburg possible. This was not entirely true in relation to the other north-east Atlantic trade objectives of the Hamburg merchants in the late medieval and early modern period: in contrast to the trade with. Whereas you find unbroken traditions of written sources in other towns (partly destroyed by bombing during World War II), Hamburg constitutes a lamentable, special case. It is astonishing what can be done with newly found sources
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