The Historical School: From Friedrich List to the Social Market Economy. Zemfira Nazarova
over their liege lord and received the status of a free imperial city. The history of such cities have Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen. By the way, it will be said that very well illustrates these cities in his work «The Prince» («The Sovereign») Niccolo Machiavelli (1469—1527), noting that «German cities enjoy complete freedom, have small areas, obey the emperor when they want it, and are not afraid of him or powerful neighbors, they are so fortified that everyone is sure that the conquest of them is a matter pesky and difficult. They are all surrounded by proper moats and walls, have sufficient artillery, and always keep a supply of food, drink, and fuel for the whole year in the public stores. Besides, in order to be able to feed the common people without detriment to the community, they always stock up for the year with material that can be worked in the manufactures that constitute the vital nerve of the city and are the chief occupation of the common people; military science is also in great honor with them, and they support it with many institutions.»1.Already in the 10th – 12th centuries, there were cities and other settlements in the Baltic regions, which were connected by lively trade relations with the entire Baltic Sea basin. The most significant of them were large Slavic cities: Wolin – at the mouth of the Oder, Novgorod, Kolobrzeg (Kolberg), Gdansk and others. In 1241 a treaty was concluded between Lübeck and Hamburg on the joint defense of trade routes in the Baltic. In 1256 the union of the seaside towns of Lübeck, Hamburg, Lüneburg, Wismar and Rostock was formed, which became the basis of the future Great Hansa.
In the beginning of XII century as a result of dismemberment of Kievan Rus’ separate principalities were formed, the connection between which was often broken by internecine strife, but never finally interrupted due to the unity of the people, common language, culture, history. The unification of the Russian principalities began only after the liquidation of the 200-year Tatar-Mongol yoke in 1480 under the rule of Moscow. However, all these years the cities grew and developed, trade relations were established. Especially powerful, strong and independent were Pskov and Novgorod, which became members of the Hanseatic League.
As the Russian historian I.M.Kulisher notes, already at the end of XII century the first treaty between Novgorodians and Germans appears, and to the same time belongs the letter of Emperor Frederick I to Lubeck in 1188, allowing duty-free trade in this city to Russians. So it is from this time the goods exchange both in Novgorod and in Lübeck takes place. The most important source confirming the fact of trade of Novgorod and Pskov with Hansa are trade treaties. The Livonian cities of Dorpat, Revel and Riga appear in the treaty of 1392, and in 1436 Dorpat and Revel are the only representatives of all German cities in negotiations with Novgorod. Treaties, charters and agreements (1195, 1260, 1270, 1304, 1373, 1392, etc.) define the measures of responsibility of the parties. As I.M.Kulisher points out, each treaty establishes the general principle that both parties are given the right to trade and no one will put obstacles in their way, they can trade without embarrassment, without forcible seizure of goods from them, which is expressed by the words «free trade», «the way is clear», «without borders», «without harm».2 Merchants of German towns «went» to Pskov and the northwestern Russian regions of Smolensk, Vitebsk, and Polotsk.
At the beginning of the XIII century, some groups of North German cities acquired trading privileges in other countries and established their offices there. The whole system of trade relations was based in the West on Bruges, in the East on Novgorod, and in the center on Lübeck, the crossroads of the routes leading to Germany. There were also large Hanseatic offices in London and Bergen (Norway). The Hanseatic cities were trade intermediaries between the east, west and north of Europe. The main items imported from the East were: bread, furs, wax, hides, leather, lard, flax; from the West – cloth, linen; from the Scandinavian peninsula – herring and cod. A unified union of Hanseatic cities – Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne, Gdansk, Riga, Lubeck, Pskov, Novgorod, etc., the total number of which reached 150 cities – was formed in 1356—1372, during the period when the trade activities of German merchants in Flanders, Denmark and Norway were limited. The first general Hanzatag (Sejm) of the cities, whose deputies met in 1356, creating the Hanseatic League (formalized the emergence of the Hanseatic League). In the Hanseatic cities, whose economic life was based mainly on trade, the power was in the hands of the merchant patriciate. The Union had as its goal not only to monopolize trade with foreign countries, but also to protect the domination of the patrician upper class; the Great Hanseatic Statute of 1418 provided for measures to combat social movements within the cities. The Union became an independent political body. Its power was manifested in the war with Denmark in 1367—70 years, which ended with a complete victory of the Hanseatic League. The decline of the Hanse began in the middle of the XV century. Rebellions of shop craftsmen broke out in the cities of the Union, rivalry between individual cities intensified. At the end of the XV century, during the formation of the centralized Russian state, after the capture by Ivan III Novgorod in 1478, Pskov in 1510 (Novgorod and Pskov boyarhood and merchants tried to defend their «liberties»), these cities were annexed to the Russian centralized state. The last congress of the Hanseatic cities took place in 1669. The main purpose of the Hanse was the protection of its merchants in foreign countries and the development of trade, which contributed to its transformation into a significant political force in Northern Europe, capable of waging even wars that pursued economic goals. As researchers note, the Hansa had neither a common seal, nor officials, nor authorities, except for the cathedral (Hansetag), which was rarely convened, and it was never attended by representatives of all cities. According to F. List «Hanseaticians created a powerful military fleet; having realized that the maritime power of the country strengthens or weakens depending on its commercial navigation and the development of fisheries, they issued a law, on the basis of which the Hanseatic wealth was to be transported only on Hanseatic ships, and took care of the wide development of fisheries of the sea. The English Navigation Act was modeled on the Hanseatic Act, which in turn was modeled on the Venetian Act»3. The Hanse existed for almost 500 years.
The changes taking place in the socio-economic life of the countries of Western Europe in these centuries necessitated their theoretical justification and the formation of a holistic concept of economic policy of cities and emerging absolutism, such theoretical justification of economic policy, which was dictated by the ongoing processes became mercantilism and cameralism. In the universities of Naples (founded in 1224), Prague (1348), Krakow (1364), Vienna (1365), Heidelberg (1386), Marburg (1527), and others, training was organized for government officials who studied cameralistic sciences (finance, mining, forestry, agriculture). As J. Schumpeter notes «professorial chairs were created to teach what in Germany was called cameral science or state science and what would more correctly be called ’the foundations of economic administration and economic policy’ (in Germany there was the term Polizeiwissenschaft)»4
In the XIV—XVII centuries, bright personalities, professionals (later we will call them the great humanists of the Renaissance) in their pamphlets independently from each other, without coordinating among themselves neither the methods nor the principles of governing the country, began to offer «service books» to kings to improve the country’s structure. These are the real recommendations of Niccolo Machiavelli (1469—1527) on the state structure and state policy, these are the beautiful «Experiments…» of morality by Michel Montaigne (1533—1592), this is the materialism of Francis Bacon (1561—1626), which influenced naturalists and in general on the development of «experimental science» of the XVII century. The era of book printing, when the German master Johann Gutenberg (1395—1468) in Mainz in 1450 improved the printing press imported from China and created a method of book printing with movable letters, on which he printed the Bible – the first full-volume printed edition in Europe, recognized as a masterpiece of early printing. This criticism of reality and the negative side of the new trends of the emerging young class of the bourgeoisie (merchants and usurers, reaching for power and experiencing the gold rush of initial capital accumulation) is vividly given in the
Machiavelli, N. The Prince. – Minsk: LLC «Zavigar», 2000. – Pg.83.
Kulisher, I.M. History of the Russian national economy. 2nd ed. – Chelyabinsk: Sotsium. 2004. – Pg.131
List, F. National system of political economy. – M.: Chelyabinsk: Sotsium, 2017. – Pg. 78
Schumpeter, J.A. History of Economic Analysis: In 3 vol. Ed. V.S. Avtonomov. SPb.: Economic School, 2001. – Pg. 202.