HANSdoc Database

15350815LON00

Transcript available

[1535, August 15]

[London]

Eldermen of the Hanseatic Kontor in London to the Hanseatic representatives gathered in Lüneburg: various complaints of the Kontor, among others about the violence of Bremen and Hamburg merchants against the English in Iceland in 1532, which caused many expenses for which the Kontor requests compensation.

15390000LUB00

[early 1539]

[Lübeck]

Skipper Herman Vurborn to Lübeck: relates how Hamburg merchants do not allow anyone else to trade in Iceland, although they are free to do so, and that he has sailed to Iceland himself last year, with a license of the Danish king, and as he sent a messenger to the governour to show him the license, the Hamburg merchants tried to kill him. Therefore, it is requested from Hamburg to let other merchants trade in peace.

15390320HAM00

Transcript available

1539, March 20

Hamburg

Claus von der Marwitz to Melchior Rantzau, marshal of the Danish king: reports about Icelandic complaints about misbehaving English merchants in Iceland, and how the matter was treated by the Danish and English king.

15440000XXX00

Transcript available

ca. 1544

Danish counsellor Anders Bille's recommendations about the Icelandic trade, that the king shall send two ships of 100 lasts annually to collect sulfur, which the Hamburg merchants do until now, and a ship to the harbours Botsand and Reff to trade, and that the English traders in England shall pay their tolls for the Icelandic trade in the London steelyard.

15440630TIN00

Transcript available

1544

Þingvellir

Twelve Icelandic men testify how at Althing lawmen Erlendur Þorvarðsson and Þorleifur Pálsson discussed what to do with the goods, money, ships and other goods which were brought to Iceland against the law by German and English merchants, about which governor Otte Stijgsson complained.

15450320KOL01

Transcript available

1545, March 20

Kolding

Governor Otto Stigsson of Iceland replies to the complaints of the Hamburg merchants, stating that they have violated against the prohibitions on the winter stay and the keeping of fishing boats in Iceland, against which the penalty is confiscation of the boats, and that it is their own fault that they had to wait for three weeks before they could trade, as no one is allowed to trade before the first of May.

15450320KOL02

Transcript available

1545, ca. March 20

Kolding

List of complaints of Otto Stigsson, governour of Iceland, against Hamburg merchants, among others that they behave violently, appropriate what isn't theirs, withhold payments to the governour, and use their own weights.

15450630TIN00

Transcript available

1545, June 30

Þingvellir

Althing decides in the conflict between Hamburg merchants and governor Otte Stigsson, and confirms the rules for foreign traders in Iceland as set out in the Píningsdomur, including that foreign merchants shall not sell fishing boats to Icelanders, are not allowed to stay in winter, and weights shall not be used to calculate the value of fish.

15490000HAM00

[1549]

[Hamburg]

[Hamburg merchants with Iceland] complain that in 1547, governor Lorentz Mule in Iceland has confiscated fish in Ackernisse from Henrich Kopman, although he had permission to leave one of his servants on the island, and from merchants in Wespenow, and sold their fish to English merchants. The damage is estimated at 733 daler, which should be repaid.

15490324KOL00

1549, March 24

Kolding

[King Christian III of Denmark to Hamburg]: Writes that the Hamburg merchants are free to trade in Iceland by his permission only, and that he will continue to permit this, as long as they respect the rules and do not stay in Iceland in winter.