Steelyard

The Steelyard, from the Middle Low German Stâlhof (sample yard),[1] was the kontor of the Hanseatic League in London, and their main trading base in England, from the 13th and 16th centuries. The main goods that the League exported from London were wool and from the 14th century woollen cloths. An important import good was beeswax. The kontor tended to be dominated by Rhenish and Westphalian traders, especially from Cologne.

For the weighing device, see Steelyard balance. For the stadium of Pohang Steelers football club, see Steelyard Stadium. For the Soviet over-the-horizon radar, see Duga radar.

A reproduced painting of the Steelyard (Souvenir of the British Exhibit in the Hall of Nations IPA Leipzig, 1930)

Name

The Middle Low German name Stâlhof is the older one, appearing as early as 1320.[2] The name seems to indicate the practice of tagging inspected wool with a lead mark.[3]: 96 

Kingsford traces the first reference to it as the Steelyard to 1382. A Latin quotation from 1394 has: In civitate Londonia ... in Curia Calibis. Kingsford concludes that Steelyard is a mistaken translation of Stâlhof.[2][4]

Location

The Steelyard was located on the north bank of the Thames by the outflow of the Walbrook, in the Dowgate ward of the City of London. The site is bounded by Cousin Lane on the west, Upper Thames Street on the north, and Allhallows Lane on the east, an area of 5,250 m2 or 1.3 acres. It is now covered by Cannon Street station and commemorated in the names of Steelyard Passage[5] and Hanseatic Walk. The Steelyard, like other Hansa stations, was a separate walled community with its own warehouses on the river, its own weigh house, chapel, counting houses, a guildhall, cloth halls, wine cellars, kitchens, and residential quarters.[5]

As a church the Germans used former All-Hallows-the-Great, since there was only a small chapel on their own premises.

In 1988 remains of the former Hanseatic kontor, once the largest medieval trading complex in Britain, were uncovered by archaeologists during maintenance work on Cannon Street Station.

History
A plan of the Steelyard from Johann Gustav Droysen's Atlas, claimed to be as it was in 1667
The Triumph of Riches
The Triumph of Poverty

Merchants from Cologne bought a building at the corner of Thames Street and Cousin Lane in the 1170s, though they seem to have used it as early as 1157, and it became known as the "Guildhall" (Latin: Gildahalda teutonicorum, Gilda aula).[3]: 96 [2] They're alluded to in the De itinere navali, an account of crusaders from Lübeck for whom the Kontor arranged the purchase of a replacement cog in the summer of 1189.[6]

Hanseatic kontor

The first mention of a Hansa Almaniae (a "German Hansa") in English records is in 1282, concerning merely the community of the London trading post, only later to be made official as the Steelyard and confirmed in tax and customs concessions granted by Edward I, in a Carta Mercatoria ("merchant charter") of 1303.

This led to constant friction over the legal position of English merchants in the Hanseatic towns and Hanseatic privileges in England, which repeatedly ended in acts of violence. Not only English wool but finished cloth was exported through the Hansa, who controlled the trade in English cloth-making centres.

When the Guildhall was destroyed in 1469, the merchants of Cologne were exempted by Edward IV, which served to foment dissension among Hansards when the Hanse cities went to war with England, and Cologne was temporarily expelled from the League. England, in the throes of the Wars of the Roses, was in a weak bargaining position, so despite several heavy defeats suffered by the Hanseatic fleet , the Hanseatic forces, consisting mainly of ships from only two cities (Lubeck and Gdansk), with the help of formidable ships like the Peter von Danzig won the Anglo-Hanseatic War and achieved a very favourable peace from the English commissioners in Utrecht in 1474.[7]

In 1475 the Hanseatic League purchased the London site outright and it became universally known as the Steelyard. The kontor then required that Hansards lived on the Steelyard.[3]: 97 [8] In exchange for the privileges the German merchants had to maintain Bishopsgate, one of the originally seven gates of the city, from where the roads led to their interests in Boston and Lynn.

Surviving Hanseatic warehouse in King's Lynn, Norfolk

Members of the Steelyard, normally stationed in London for only a few years, sat for a famous series of portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger in the 1530s,[9] portraits which were so successful that the Steelyard Merchants commissioned from Holbein the allegorical paintings The Triumph of Riches and The Triumph of Poverty for their Hall. Both were destroyed by a fire, but there are copies in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Later merchants of the Steelyard were portrayed by Cornelis Ketel. There is a fine description of the Steelyard by John Stow.

The prosperity of the Hanse merchants, who were in direct competition with those of the City of London, induced Queen Elizabeth to suppress the Steelyard and rescind its privileges in 1598. James I reopened the Steelyard, but it never again carried the weight it formerly had in London.[3]: 100  Most of the buildings were destroyed during the Great Fire of London in 1666. The land and buildings remained the property of the Hanseatic League, and were subsequently let as warehouses to merchants.

After the end of the Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League was never officially dissolved but is considered to have disintegrated in 1669. Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen would however continue to be known as the "Hanseatic Cities". Consulates of the Hanseatic cities provided indirect communication between Northern Germany and Whitehall during the European blockade of the Napoleonic wars. Patrick Colquhoun was appointed as Resident Minister and Consul general by the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg in 1804 and by Bremen and Lübeck shortly after as the successor of Henry Heymann, who was also Stalhofmeister, "master of the Steelyard". Colquhoun was valuable to those cities through their occupation by the French since he provided indirect communication between Northern Germany and Whitehall,[10] especially in 1808, when the three cities considered their membership in the Confederation of the Rhine. His son James Colquhoun was his successor as Consul of the Hanseatic cities in London.

Lübeck, Bremen and Hamburg only sold their common property, the London Steelyard, to the South Eastern Railway in 1852.[11]: 192 [12] The buildings were demolished in 1863.[3]: 100  Cannon Street station was built on the site and opened in 1866.

Organisation and life
Caius Gabriel Cibber: The arms of the Steelyard (c. 1670) on display in the Museum of London

The Steelyard was, like the other kontors, a legal person established as a merchant corporation (universitas mercatorum) in a foreign trading city to facilitate Hanseatic trade. It had its own treasury, seal, code of rules, legal power to enforce rules on residents and administration.[3]: 91  Security was the primary reason for establishing kontors, but they were also important for inspecting trade goods and diplomacy with local and regional authorities.[13]: 128–130, 138 

The Steelyard was led by an alderman, who was the chief juridical authority and diplomatic representative. There was also an English alderman from the late 14th century, an arrangement that was unique to London. The aldermen were assisted by achteinen, assistants or deputies. Around the mid 15th century the position of clerk, who was legally trained and performed secretarial duties. The Hanseatic merchants in London were grouped in geographical categories called "thirds" (German: Drittel). The German alderman and his deputies weren't allowed to come from the same third.[3]: 91, 100–101 

The Hansards lived in the Steelyard at a relatively closed off area, more so than at Bryggen, and they certainly weren't as integrated into the host city as at the kontor of Bruges. They had however many ties with Londoners, for example Englishmen acted as executors for Hansards, so they were not nearly as segregated as at Novgorod's Peterhof.[3]: 97  Merchants operating out of the Steelyard were granted certain privileges and were exempt from customs duties and some taxes. In effect, the Steelyard was a separate and independent community, governed by the codes of the Hanseatic League, and enforced by the merchants' native cities.[14]

Steelyard balance
Main article: Steelyard balance

The Steelyard possibly gave its name to the steelyard balance, a type of portable balance, consisting of a suspended horizontal beam. An object to be weighed would be hung on the shorter end of the beam, while weights would be slid along the longer end, till the beam balanced. The weight could then be calculated by multiplying the sum of the known weights by the ratio of the distances from the beam's fulcrum.

  • Georg Giese from Danzig, 34-year-old German merchant at the Steelyard, painted in London by Hans Holbein in 1532
    Georg Giese from Danzig, 34-year-old German merchant at the Steelyard, painted in London by Hans Holbein in 1532
  • Hans of Antwerp 1532
    Hans of Antwerp 1532
  • Hermann Wedigh 1532
    Hermann Wedigh 1532
  • Hillebrant Wedigh of Cologne; 1533
    Hillebrant Wedigh of Cologne; 1533
  • Dirk Tybis of Duisburg; 1533
    Dirk Tybis of Duisburg; 1533
  • Cyriacus Kale 1533
    Cyriacus Kale 1533
  • Derick Born (1533);
    Derick Born (1533);
  • Derick Berck (painted in 1536)
    Derick Berck (painted in 1536)
  • A commemorative plaque placed in 2005 at Cannon Street station, near the location of the Steelyard
    A commemorative plaque placed in 2005 at Cannon Street station, near the location of the Steelyard

References
  1. "steelyard". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  2. Kingsford, C.L. "Notes". In John Stow. Kingsford, C.L. (ed). A Survey of London, vol. 2. p 319.
  3. Wubs-Mrozewicz, Justyna (2010). "De Kantoren van de Hanze: Bergen, Brugge, Londen en Nowgorod" [The Kontors of the Hanseatic League: Bergen, Brugge, London and Novgorod]. In Brand, Hanno; Egge, Knol (eds.). Koggen, kooplieden en kantoren: de Hanze, een praktisch netwerk [Cogs, merchants and offices: the Hanze, a practical network] (hardcover) (in Dutch) (1st ed.). Hilversum & Groningen: Uitgeverij Verloren & Groninger Museum. ISBN 978-90-8704-165-6.
  4. Verein für Hansische Geschichte (1899). Stein, Walther; Höhlbaum, Konstantin; von Rundstedt, Hans-Gerd; Kunze, Karl (eds.). Hansisches Urkundenbuch. Vol. 5. Lübeck: Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses. p. 86.
  5. Panayi, P., Germans in Britain Since 1500, A&C Black, 1996, p. 19
  6. Cushing, Dana (1 October 2013). A German Third Crusader's Voyage & the Siege of Almohad Silves / Muwahid Xelb (1189 AD / 585 AH): De Itinere Navali (hardcover). Antimony Media. ISBN 978-0-9892853-1-5.
  7. F. R. Salter, "The Hanse, Cologne, and the Crisis of 1468" The Economic History Review 3.1 (January 1931), pp. 93–101.
  8. "Prof. Rainer Postel, The Hanseatic League and its Decline". Archived from the original on 19 November 2005. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  9. The series of eight portraits of individual merchants from the Steelyard that scholars agree were painted by Holbein include: Georg Giese of Danzig; Hans of Antwerp and Hermann Wedigh (all painted in 1532); Hillebrant Wedigh of Cologne; Unknown member of the Wedigh family; Dirk Tybis of Duisburg; Cyriacus Kale and Derick Born (all painted in 1533); Derick Berck (painted in 1536); however, the may also have painted other portraits of merchants, such as that of Johann Schwarzwald, which is often attributed to Holbein, See: Holman, T.S., "Holbein's Portraits of the Steelyard Merchants: An Investigation," Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 14, 1980, pp 139–158; Fudge, J.F., Commerce and Print in the Early Reformation, Brill, 2007, p.110
  10. G. D. Yeats, Biographical Sketch..., 44–45.
  11. Hammel-Kiesow, Rolf (2010). "Hoe de Hanze verdween en op de drempel van de 20e naar de 21e eeuw weer opleeft" [How the Hansa disappeared and rises on the threshold of the 20th to the 21th century again]. In Brand, Hanno; Knol, Egge (eds.). Koggen, kooplieden en kantoren: de Hanze, een praktisch netwerk [Cogs, merchants and offices: the Hanze, a practical network] (hardcover) (in Dutch) (1st ed.). Hilversum & Groningen: Uitgeverij Verloren & Groninger Museum. ISBN 978-90-8704-165-6.
  12. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Steelyard, Merchants of the". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  13. Burkhardt, Mike (2015). "Kontors and Outposts". In Harreld, Donald J. (ed.). A Companion to the Hanseatic League. Brill's Companions to European History. Leiden, Boston: Brill. pp. 127–161. ISBN 978-90-0428-288-9.
  14. Fudge, J.D., Commerce and Print in the Early Reformation, BRILL, 2007, pp 110–112
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