Dutch wine trade: Hanseatic League

Although merchants from the region had been handling wine from very early times, it was not until the late 13th century that the Dutch, principally Hollanders and Zeelanders, entered the thriving maritime commerce which linked the countries of the Atlantic seaboard with the Baltic, as associates of the German Hansa (the Hanseatic League). This powerful alliance of about 80 merchant towns had by that time established a virtual monopoly of Baltic and Scandinavian trade by organizing large fleets of merchant vessels to transport basic commodities in bulk. From 1237 they began to acquire rights in English markets; and from 1252 they acquired trading privileges in Flanders, with reduced customs in Bruges and its out-port Damme.