Another outcome of the Congress of Vienna for hanseatic cities

The monarchies that had been victorious against Napoleonic France established new national borders for Europe at the 1814-1815 Congress of Vienna. In the final analysis, Hamburg, Bremen and Luebeck came out well from the Congress of Vienna. Their status as independent national entities was restored and old political institutions were reinstituted. Could there have been a different outcome from the Congress of Vienna, especially one that would not have been advantageous? This leads to the follow-up question: What would have been the consequences for the development of the cities if, after the French occupation, they had never again achieved the status of free cities?
 

dead_wolf

Banned
Bremen, Hamburg, and Lubeck (along with Frankfurt) survived Vienna because they weren't mediatized during the Napoleonic period.
 
For Hamburg, it would most likely have been quite disastrous. True, it would still be a major port, but without its effective duty-free status it would neither be able to feed its growing population on imported food nor attract induistries profiting from refining tax-free raw materials. I also doubt that Hanoverian, Prussian or Danish authorities would have tolerated the kind of private empire-building its merchants were up to. Not sure about banking - Hamburg banks were rather conservative, they might have survived fairly well. And of course there would not have been the drive to cast its trade network ever wider because the people would have had other options in the hinterland or in industry. And the nephew of one Solomon Heine might have a long career in the more forgiving civil service of his monarch, or a midnight visit from the police.

Lübeck I could see working pretty well as a Danish provincial city with a proud past. Bremen I simply don't know enough about.
 
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