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Relics Of Hanse Merchants

Relics Of Hanse Merchants image
Parent Issue
Day
13
Month
December
Year
1895
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Bnt one of the most entertaining places was the Hanseatic house, or musenm, which stands in the Finnegaard, ou the Tydskebrygge. It is the last remaining habitat) 011 occupied by that notorious riug üf Germán traders who settled down in Bergen, Norway, in the fourteenth centnry and monopolized its conirnerce for some 200 or #00 years, until ifs power was finally brokea in the eighteenth efliitnry. All the other havo boen bnrned or otherwise destróyer!, and this was the only one left standing. We climbud np to a room in the second story, about 8 by 15 f eet square, and here were shown a large nuinber of cnrious articles formerly used by these oíd merchante. There were scales and weights, the latter being of two sorts - one for bnying and one for selling - cloeks, lanterus, candl6Sticks, snuffboxes, washing bowls, drinking cnps and tankards, machines for choppiug cabbage and staves with bags for making collections in church. We were also shown lamps that were fed with cod liver oil, not then nsed for medicinal purposes ; decorations made of strips of dried codfisli, and thearmsof the league - half an eagle and half a cod, the latter surmounted by a crown which suggested the origin of the term "codfish aristocracy. " Then, throuah a darb, rickety stairway, we continued onr climb to the third story and were shown the merchants' business office and the apartments for the clerks and bedrooms for all. These last were the most cnrious of the whole suit, for the beds are constructed like the berthsof a ship and are closed on one sile with hinged or sliding doors, while on the other shntters open to a passage beyond to enable the female domeetics to make the beds withont entering the men 's rooms. The Hanseatic community was supposed to be strictly celibate in order to prevent its meinbers from intermarrying with Norwegians, and thus allowing the natives to obtain a share of the lized trade.

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News