that they were so much molested by pirates, especially by the English, that in 1340 the cities of Ghent, Ypres, and Bruges, were obliged to seek and obtain from Edward III. a safe conduct[1] for the merchant shipping of Catalonia, Castille, and Majorca. In spite, however, of the king's protection, so daring and regardless of all law were these marauders, that a few years afterwards two vessels laden with valuable cargoes, and sent by the merchants of Barcelona and Valencia for Flanders, were captured by pirates from Bayonne, and carried into an English port.[2]
Progress of the Hanseatic League,
and its system of business.
The Hanseatic League having now become by far
the most important commercial association in Europe,
its merchants entered with zeal into the rich and
prosperous trade which made Flanders and the Low
Countries so conspicuous in the annals of the commercial
history of the period. More than seventy
cities and towns were associated with the League.
Its chief agencies, firmly established at Bruges in
Flanders, at Bergen in Norway, and at Novgorod in
Russia, entirely monopolized for many years the
trade of these countries. Its agents and factors, all
of whom were mercantile men, were guided by rules
and instructions emanating from head-quarters at
Lubeck, and from these they had no power to deviate
unless under extraordinary circumstances. They
were not permitted to have any common interest with
strangers, or to trust their goods no board any other
merchant ships than those belonging to the places
with which the association was in league. Wholly
