As a matter of safety, Northern European merchants learned to move together in armed groups. These traveling merchant bands were called hansas, a Lower German word meaning ‘company’ or ‘troop’. When a hansa formed for a trip, they elected an alderman (literally ‘elder man’) who would speak on behalf of the group to the various authorities – lords, princes, bishops, and other rulers – they might encounter along the way.

When Northern Europe’s first long-haul merchants set off on their voyages, they faced a world that had not yet been ordered for trade.