Space, Agency, and Conflict Management in the Late Medieval Baltic: Urban Colonies and Representatives of Hanse Towns at Scania

The Scania peninsula in the southwest of present-day Sweden was one of the most important trading centres of medieval northern Europe because of the presence of vast amounts of herring which attracted large numbers of fishermen and traders. Behind the beach of Scania, the latter had, by region or city, their own, legally autonomous trade settlements, the so-called vittes. Initially, these were seasonal trading colonies that were used for the duration of the fair. In the late Middle Ages the vittes developed into miniature towns, small reflections of the traders’ Hanseatic hometowns. The presence on this small peninsula (c. 50 km2) of many fishermen and merchants who did business together and came from different places could easily lead to tension and conflict.

What was the relationship between the spatial arrangement of the vittes at Scania, their urban representative—the so-called Vögte or governors—and the conflicts that arose between merchants in the various vittes? This question is addressed by focusing on the vittes of the Zuiderzee towns, which have hardly received attention even though they represented about half of their total number. How were the merchants from these towns represented at Scania? To what extent did the respective overlords interfere? What did the trend towards territorialization at Scania mean for the representation of the various merchant communities and their towns? It will be argued that the Vögte can be compared with consuls while the vittes can be understood as urban colonies that are comparable in several respects to the funduqs and fondacos along the Mediterranean and to the early-modern European trading posts on the coasts of Africa and Asia.