Institutions of Hanseatic Trade

Table Of Contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• About the authors
• About the book
• This eBook can be cited
• Contents
• Foreword
• Chapter 1 Hanse History and Economics – a New Institutional Economics Perspective on Hanseatic Trade
• Points of Departure
• Hanse Research, the Economy and Economics
• New Institutional Economics and the Hanse – a Challenge
• Chapter 2 Reputation, Trust and Culture – the Network Structure of Hanseatic Trade and its Benefits
• Hanseatic Trade and its Historiographical Evaluation
• The Network Structure of Hanseatic Trade
• Forms of Commercial Exchange and Cooperation
• Firm size and Network Organisation
• Overlapping Circles of Family and Business
• Coordination of the Network Trade System
• The Problem of Coordination
• The Agency Problem
• A Game-theoretical Analysis of Medieval Commercial Exchange
• The Viability of Hanseatic Reciprocal Trade
• Non-hierarchical Means of Coordination
• An Economic Assessment of the Hanse’s Network Organisation of Trade
• Individual Economic Benefits
• Cost Savings
• The Minimisation of Contractual Risks
• Concluding Remarks
• Chapter 3 A ‘Small World’ – Reconstruction and Meaning of the Hansards’ Social Networks
• Network Analysis as a Method to Describe Social Structure
• The Theoretical Concept of Social Networks
• A Brief Sketch of the Methodology of Social Network Analysis
• Social Networks within the Hanse – Examples and Corresponding Sources
• Conditions of the Emerging Networks – Population Growth and Migration
• Kinship Networks among Hansards
• Wills as a Source of Network Reconstruction – the Case of Lübeck
• Social Proximity vs. Spatial Vicinity – Societies and Neighbourhoods
• Social Networks of Hansards as a ‘Small World’
• Chapter 4 Bridging Distances and Filling Gaps – Strategies to Handle Heterogeneous Commercial Environments
• Extension of European Trade to the Baltic Sea – Merchants and Cities
• Unequal Hanseatic Commercial Settings – Sources of Heterogeneity
• The Dissimilarity of Mercantile Environments
• Handling a Variety of Goods
• Bridging and Filling the Gap – Strategies to Balance the Effects of Heterogeneity
• Hedging Against the Risks of Transportation
• Creating Formal Institutions
• Networking and Reciprocal Trade
• Standardisation and Homogenisation of Commercial Institutions and Culture
• Success and Failure of Hanseatic Strategies to Cope with Heterogeneity
• Chapter 5 State of Cities, Commercial Trust, or Virtual Organisation? – Structure and Coordination of the Hanse
• The Paradoxical Outward Appearance of the Hanse
• Structure of the Hanse
• A Theoretical Concept – the Network Approach and Virtual Organisations
• The Hanse’s Network Trade and its Virtual Character
• The Organisational Multiplexity of the Hanse
• Problems of Coordination and Institutions to Enhance Cooperation
• The First-order Problem of Coordination
• The Second-order Problem of Coordination
• Determinants of Fruitful Cooperation and of Cooperation Failure
• Chapter 6 Competitive Advantage or Limit to Business? – Contingency and Path Dependence
• The Context of the Hanseatic Network Organisation
• Economic Effects of the Hanseatic Network Organisation
• Effectiveness and Profitability of Hanseatic Trade
• Economic Growth and Collective Welfare
• Distribution of Income and Wealth in the Hanse towns
• The Scope of Hanseatic Trade
• The Development of the Hanse’s Network Organisation and Path Dependence
• Network Size, Cultural Borders and the Network Paradox
• Adaptations Missed Because of the Success of the Network Organisation
• The Multiplicity of Structure, and a Mismatch of Structure and Coordination
• The Change of Economic Conditions
• Chapter 7 Perspectives of Research into Hanseatic Trade – the Impact of the Model of Network Organisation
• A Short Look Back
• Methodological Advances and Newly Published Sources
• Network Organisation as a Formative Pattern of Pre-modern Trade
• The Hanse as a Political Organisation
• The Structural Change around the Year 1500
• Insights Relevant to Historical Economics of Trade
• Bibliography