The Hanseatic League
The Free, Independent, and Hanseatic City of Lübeck is perhaps one of the cities that best bridges the Old and the New. Ancient medieval buildings bear satellite dishes, bringing up to the minute information about prices in Japan, while modern skyscrapers bear ancient wooden seals affirming membership in a guild. Most walk around bearing suits but for formal occasions the outfits suggest the 1300s.
Such is the seat of the Hanseatic League.
The League was a product of the Medieval guild system, closed groups of artisans banding together to maintain control of the market for their wages. With the decline of the Vikings, North German merchants began dominating the Baltic Sea trade, gaining influence far and wide. Powerful trading cities like Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck became prominent, and struck upon the idea of banding together to preserve their power.
Thus was born what became the Hanseatic League. And association of merchants who maneuvered their way into a monopoly over much of the economies of northern Europe. Some city-states joined as full members, while other cities in larger states also joined. Sometimes only certain guilds would join the league. Other times league merchants would carve out independent zones in foreign cities, subject to only their own law. Prices were fixed, the merchant profession was closed to those whose families could not get them into the Hansa. Pirates and opposing merchants alike were ruthlessly stamped out. Even Kings in their own right could be brought to heel. Twice in the 1300s did the League threaten Copenhagen with destruction to gain privileges from the Danish Kings. Young men worked their way up from menial laborers to Masters.
For a time in the 1400s it seemed as though the League was in decline. A new breed of King did not take well to their habit of fostering independence for merchant cities. A new age of exploration shifted the balance of trade from the Baltic to the North Sea, the English and the Spanish Netherlands seemed on the rise as commercial powers. The Hansa seemed to be in trouble.
Then, one day, a Master of the League in London heard of a Geneon whose brother sought a new passage to India. A bold decision was made to sponsor him.
Entering the New World brought enormous wealth to the League, with gold and silver enabling new operations against rivals. It also firmly moved the center of power in the League to the coasts, which allowed the largely Protestant League to surviving the departure of the Catholics when the Reformation tore Germany asunder.
As I ride the tram I strike up a conversation with Suusje Neplenbroek, a friendly businesswoman from Antwerp.
“Flew back home from Neues Lübeck a couple days ago, got to spend the weekend with the nephews before popping over here for the Conference on Solar Panels.” She explains.
The League sponsored the massive Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule in the late 1500s, and then “encouraged” them to join the Hansa. This marked the beginning of the end of the previously strict policy restricting membership to Germans, as well as their entrance into the lucrative spice trade. As well as the massive expansion of the League’s shameful embrace of the transatlantic slave trade.
In time the overseas trade was where the real money was, not the Baltic. Most of the once formally prominent cities faded in importance, although as the Capital Lübeck to this day
“My sister worked in Nagasaki for awhile, met her husband there. Had the cutest little kids.” She pulls out her phone to show me the pictures. “Adriaan wants to be a pilot, Akio is going to be baker. Two future Hansa members!”
The rise of absolutism and later nationalism hurt the Hansa in places. Much of their influence in Russia was lost as the Czar’s tightened their grip. State back trading companies like the French East India Company were harder to muscle out of the markets. In an age of mass armies League had little population to draw from.
The Hansa used a combination of neutrality, bribery, and alliances with larger states to make their way through the era, and also introduced the idea that able bodied merchants could be called on to defend the league while simultaneously expanding the definition of merchant to include those outside the actual buying and selling of products.
This naturally provoked resistance, sometimes violent, in areas under Hansa control. In addition the younger generation began doubting the wisdom of the elders, particularly as it pertained to the Industrial Revolution. Eventually they caved, establishing the chamber that now forms the lower house of the Hanseatic League’s government, which still retained much of its ceremonial medieval character. The event, nearing its 200th anniversary, is commemorated worldwide every April 9.
“Kaufmannstag Day is the best!” Neplenbroek says. “We all get the day off, drink a lot and sing. Then we get to ceremonially spit on our bosses, after our employees spit on us.”
Since then the Hansa has continued onwards, always facing bumps whenever new innovations such as the airplane or telephone disrupts the status quo. But with a massive budget, ruthlessness and actual territory and population the League has been able to bounce back.
“I know they’re having, the higher ups that is, trouble with the anschluss is that it’s hard to control all these digital pages and links and such. Can’t control it like you control the train system. Oh here’s my stop! Thanks for the talk. I hope I helped you with your article thingy!” She says, scrambling off the tram.
I exit the train at the University of Lübeck, one of the few institutions not directly operated by the Hanseatic League. My contact here is Dr. Markus Miztli, who teaches political science (or the closest approximation on this World) at the University while freelancing at the Nutshell on occasion. He’s short and broad shouldered, a champion featherweight wrestler in his youth. We’ve worked together in the past, although never in his home world. His work on the League convinced me that it was a government and not simply an absurdly powerful mega-corporation, earning it a place in this work.
“The League is unique in that all people working under its auspices, from the man sweeping the floor at the airport, to the manager of the bagel shop down the street, to the director of finance in Colhua.” Miztli explains. “The League assigns them roles based on job and time served, but they are all members.”
If the League owns a business, all members of the business are members of the League and the Business does Business only with League Businesses. Hansa steel is only purchased from Hansa mines (certain rare goods outside of League control can receive exemptions) and Hansa projects get right of first refusal to buy it.
“It is not, strictly speaking, a command economy.” Explains Miztli. “At times the Hansa allows internal competition in certain areas, and of course it is happy to compete with outside companies.”
I passed several grocery stores on my way here, all Hansa owned and operated, but the League would never allow competition in say, aircraft development.
I ask what the requirements are for formally joining the Hansa as a member.
“Be old enough to work, and willing to submit to their rules.” He says.
Individuals are technically allowed to shop and sell outside the League on their own time, although this is highly discouraged, and downright impossible in a place like Lübeck. Hansa members also pay steep dues, equivalent to taxes, although they also receive benefits. There are also any number of guild rules to follow, and the standard contract allows for imprisonment as a punishment for non-compliance.
I ask who makes the rules.
“Since the reforms of 1823, there have been two chambers that dictate Hansa policy.” Miztli says. “The Kaufmannstag and the Hansatag. Together they elect the Grand Masters of various departments, and the Syndic.”
The Kaufmannstag is elected by universal proportional representation, the only sensible option for an election over six continents (those at the Antarctic interests vote absentee). The Hansatag used to be the domain of the oldest and wealthiest merchants, and only European ones, but saw reform in the 1930s. I ask how elections to the still-powerful Upper House work now.
Dr. Miztli is a globally and extra-universally renowned professor of political science. He has lived in the Hanseatic League his entire life, and remains a member despite his current role not requiring it. He is, I know, active in League politics and has a near photographic memory.
When I ask how the Hansatag is elected, he reaches for some alcohol and pulls up a complicated spreadsheet on his computer.
“Weighted system. Members of higher ranking get increased vote totals. As does time in the guild. There are also districts based on your quarter.” He explains. “Err and then it’s run through a model to weigh for certain factors that are covered in tab A section 2 and then…” He trials off, which rather supports his decision to drink
Quarters, of which there are more than four, are based on geographic location. Although by the looks of it, the districts are rather creatively drawn. One includes parts of both Australia and the Pearl River Delta in China.
“In any event, day to day affairs are run by the Grand Masters, in charge of certain sectors Aerospace, Shipping, Services, as well as a few non-business ones like International Relations, Military, and Internal Administration. As a general rule the first group are technocrats, while the second group tend to be more political. All supervised by the Syndic.” He explains happily, back on stable ground.
Much of the Legislature’s work is setting goals and basic standards for the League, as well as dealing with those outside the League’s purview. For a globe spanning superpower, it governs with a fairly light hand, although it has other means of control.
I ask about the regions the League governs and Miztli takes another drink.
“The way I see it, there are four basic layers. None of this is legally defined mind you, each place has its own quirks.” He says, before explaining those layers to me.
Armed with this knowledge I leave his office. He gives a firm handshake.
“It is a pleasure to finally be interviewed for your not-so-little-anymore project Dr. Chana. I hope to visit your world someday and return the favor.”
I pause, and tell him that may be a longtime coming.
The First of his Four Tier system is the one Lübeck occupies. Only a few other cities are in this tier, old Hanseatic towns like Hamburg and Amsterdam or Continental Headquarters like Keelung. These cities are administered directly by the League, with no local authority to speak of, all services run from the central government. Building codes in Lübeck for example are run by someone in the Hanseatic League Department of Construction. Residents are compensated by having their votes for the Hansatag weighted heavily.
However when I board a train bound southeastwards, I enter Brandenburg, which sits firmly in the Second Tier outlined by the good doctor. I meet up with my next contact. Entrepreneur and self-proclaimed “Hansa apostate” Felix Nemke has a frantic energy that matches his youthful appearance and unusual dress, which includes flip-flops.
“Naturally it’s rather difficult, living outside the system.” He says. “No handouts, no businesses willing to work with you outside the black market. Of course,” he grins. “Not f****** taxes either.”
Most rebels operating in League “Territory” operate on lower tiers, where there is more wiggle room against the Hansa, as well as more protection afforded to non-members. Nemke however is trying his luck in the woodland vacation town of Berlin.
“Bunch of thugs tried to smash my stuff, couldn’t go to the police, since they were all Hansa, the thugs and police. No courts except the League internal division either. Thankfully all the important stuff was on the anschluss.” He explains excitedly.
With the Hansa Guild rules not applying to him, Nemke is immune from most laws. In theory he could be deported for serious crimes, although he has not tested the process. Brandenburg and other Tier Two regions are also run via the Hanseatic League. Elections are held entirely by members, there is no government free of them, and foreign, military, and macroeconomic affairs are still dealt with by the overarching government in Lübeck. But there is a local League made up of and elected by only members of the Brandenburg Hansa. Education standards, sanitation, laws regarding auto use are all governed by the local Diets and Sub-Syndic, so long as they do not contend with orders from above. All areas under total league control larger than a city are Tier Two. Such locations include Sri Lanka, home of the current Syndic Nayomi Vijaya, and New Netherlands.
Nemke runs a social network he calls ‘Go Go,’ which connects people via the anschluss, this world’s somewhat unfortunately named version of the Internet. He remains dependent on Hansa provided connection (although he illegally uses it and is in a constant battle to avoid being shut out) and most users are League members. Still, Nemke remains confident the world is changing.
“The electronic world is a free market even the old stooges in the Guild Hall can’t contain!” He exclaims. “Free trade is coming, entrepreneurs will be freed of the shackles of the unskilled and unmotivated!”
I take the next train South, heading over the border into Upper Germany, an amalgamation of Austria and Bavaria and one relatively free of League influence. Meaning it acts more as a particularly large corporation here then a government.
Tier Three is what Miztli calls “protectorates.” These states have their own institutions outside the Hansa often made up only of locals, for example the Kingdom of the Zulu only allows people born there to vote for Parliament, and often has somewhat higher proportions of non-members than the top tiers. However the Hansa still essentially run the show. Membership is a virtual prerequisite for high offices, for example the Prime Minister of the Zulu, and these territories have often made significant concessions.
“They’re puppets,” Explains Tibusungu’u Yata'uyungana, my contact in Munich. “Plain and simple. Slaves to their masters in Lübeck.”
Yata'uyungana is a Tsou exile from the Republic of Formosa, a solidly tier three state. While most areas ruled directly by the League an be generally relied on to have some degree of freedom, Tier Three nations are more varied. The Kingdom of the Zulu largely maintains the freedoms Hansa members get in places like Germany, whereas Formosa does not.
“Any opposition is crushed,” he explains. “And it’s where they send troublemakers they can’t legally touch elsewhere. You said you talked to a dissident in Berlin? He’ll end up at some black site in Formosa or the Swahili Coast.”
All tier three nations have granted economic privileges to the Hansa in exchange for automatically agreeing to certain League policies. Some have also waved their military and diplomatic rights over to the League, although Formosa has not. Hansa members living in such places have a lower voting privilege in the Hansatag, but also have more freedom from certain guild rules.
“Of course, there is no true escape,” claims Yata'uyungana. “The oppression of the worker continues nonetheless.”
I inquire about the fact that even the lowliest manual laborer has a vote, which is more than many employees can say. He scoffs.
“It’s all rigged. The Hansatag is heavily biased towards those with power. 7 years as a manager is worth 49 times more bite weight than 7 years as an entry level worker. And the Guild won’t promote you unless you’ve got connections. Oh, and there’s no way to leave without abandoning your home.” He complains.
Yata'uyungana works for the international organization Workers Global, which advocates for workplace democracy rather than the hierarchy employed by the league.
“Free-Market types will complain that the League’s problem is that it’s beholden. Tied down by responding to things like member demands and need for social services.” He says. These are indeed the complaints that Felix Nemke made. “But the real problem is that the workers don’t have any control. The bureaucracy is too thick and the corrupt Hansatag will block any change.” Yata'uyungana continues.
I ask if any of the League’s internal political parties would cause real change. He shakes his head insistently.
“All of them are more or less in agreement about the current system. Although the Populists have some decent ideas. But none of them are willing to actually change. At least in Capeland you could vote for Liberation.”
Tier Four territories have what Metzil calls “substantial but not dominant influence” from the guild. That is, the guild exerts far more influence than is typical even for a large corporation but there are significant non-Hansa forces as a counterweight. This can take several forms. In the aforementioned Capeland the League backed Prosperity Party is only one of many fighting for control. Whereas Japan is mostly free of outside influence, save Nagasaki where the league exerts considerable influence.
“The League is an imperial power,” insists Yata'uyungana, and not without reason. “They can promote all the non-European Grand Masters they want, they can apologize for their role in the transatlantic slave trade, but it doesn’t change the facts of the matter.”
The League's leadership retains a majority from Northern Europe, despite the international character of its members. And it a territory wishes to leave it faces a bevy of convoluted legal and economic questions, combined its potential ruin should the League simply withdraw all funds.
“And even if the League does pull out, leaving only their offices and ‘legitimate businesses’ like mining or whatever that doesn’t mean you’re free. Look at what happened to Oman.” Yata'uyungana grumbles.
There exists an unofficial “Tier Five” where the Hanseatic League operates as a puppet master despite having little presence in terms of raw numbers. Some are ex-colonies, such as Oman. Others are places like England where historical animosity from the populace prevents the League from gaining a foothold, but the League’s London office ensures that the government stays in line.
“The League is great if you’re in good with them.” Yata'uyungana admits bergundingly. “Peace, prosperity, those little cream puff things. But they have a nasty side. And if you piss then off, they don’t hesitate to show you.”
