Hans, an ancient name for a society or company of merchants; particularly that of certain cities in Germany, &c. hence called Hanse-towns. See Hanse-Towns.—The word hanse is obsolete High Dutch or Teutonic; and signifies "alliance, confederacy, association," &c. Some derive it from the two German words, am-see, that is, "on the sea;" by reason the first hanse-towns were all situated on the sea-coast; whence the society is said to have been first called am see steven, that is, "cities on the sea;" and afterwards, by abbreviation, hanser, and hanse.

Hanse-Towns. The hanseatic society was a league between several maritime cities of Germany, for the mutual protection of their commerce. Bremen and Amsterdam were the two first that formed it; whose trade received such advantage by their fitting out two men of war in each to convoy their ships, that more cities continually entered into the league: even kings and princes made treaties with them, and were often glad of their assistance and protection; by which means they grew so powerful both by sea and land, that they raised armies as well as navies, enjoyed countries in sovereignty, and made peace or war, though always in defence of their trade, as if they had been an united state or commonwealth.

At this time also abundance of cities, though they had no great interest in trade, or intercourse with the ocean, came into their alliance for the preservation of their liberties: so that in 1200 we find no less than 72 cities in the list of the towns of the Hanse; particularly Bremen, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Dort, Bruges, Ostend, Dunkirk, Middleburgh, Calais, Rouen, Rochelle, Bordeaux, St Malo, Bayonne, Bilboa, Lisbon, Seville, Cadiz, Carthagena, Barcelona, Marseilles, Leghorn, Naples, Messina, London, Lubeck, Rostock, Stralsund, Stettin, Wismar, Konigsberg, Dantzig, Elbing, Marienburg.

The alliance was now so powerful, that their ships of war were often hired by other princes to assist them against their enemies. They not only awed, but often defeated, all that opposed their commerce; and particularly in 1338, they took such revenge of the Danish fleet in the Sound, for having interrupted their commerce, that Waldemar III., then king of Denmark, for the sake of peace, gave them up all Schonen for 16 years; by which they commanded the passage of the Sound in their own right.—In 1428 they made war on Erick king of Denmark with 250 sail, carrying on board 12,000 men. These so ravaged the coast of Jutland, that the king was glad to make peace with them.

Many privileges were bestowed upon the hanse-towns by Louis XI., Charles VIII., Louis XII., and Francis I., kings of France; as well as by the emperor Charles V., who had divers loans of money from them; and by King Henry III., who also incorporated them into a trading body, in acknowledgment for money which they advanced to him, as well as for the good services they did him by their naval forces in 1206.

These towns exercised a jurisdiction among themselves; for which purpose they were divided into four colleges or provinces, distinguished by the names of their four principal cities, viz. Lubeck, Cologne, Brunswick, and Dantzig, wherein were held their courts of judicature. They had a common stock or treasury at Lubeck, and power to call an assembly as often as necessary.—They kept magazines or warehouses for the sale of their merchandises in London, Bruges, Antwerp, Berg in Norway, Revel in Livonia, Novogorod in Muscovy, which were exported to most parts of Europe, in English, Dutch, and Flemish bottoms. One of their principal magazines was at London, where a society of German merchants was formed, called the steelyard company. To this company great privileges were granted by Edward I., but revoked by act of parliament in 1552 in the reign of Edward VI., on a complaint of the English merchants that this company had so engrossed the cloth-trade, that in the preceding year they had exported 50,000 pieces, while all the English together had shipped off but 1100. Queen Mary, who ascended the throne the year following, having resolved to marry Philip, the emperor's son, suspended suspended the execution of the act for three years; but after that term, whether by reason of some new statute, or in pursuance of that of King Edward, the privileges of that company were no longer regarded, and all efforts of the hanse-towns to recover this loss were in vain.

Another accident that happened to their mortification was while Queen Elizabeth was at war with the Spaniards. Sir Francis Drake happening to meet 60 ships in the Tagus, loaded with corn belonging to the hanse-towns, took out all the corn as contraband goods, which they were forbidden to carry by their original patent. The hanse-towns having complained of this to the diet of the empire, the queen sent an ambassador thither to declare her reasons. The king of Poland likewise interested himself in the affair, because the city of Dantzig was under his protection. At last, though the queen strove hard to preserve the commerce of the English in Germany, the emperor excluded the English company of merchant-adventurers, who had considerable factories at Stade, Embden, Bremen, Hamburg, and Elbing, from all trade in the empire. In short, the hanse-towns, in Germany in particular, were not only in so flourishing, but in so formidable a state, from the 14th to the 16th century, that they gave umbrage to all the neighbouring princes, who threatened a strong confederacy against them; and, as the first step towards it, commanded all the cities within their dominion or jurisdiction to withdraw from the union or hanse, and be no farther concerned therein. This immediately separated all the cities of England, France, and Italy, from them. The hanse, on the other hand, prudently put themselves under the protection of the empire; and as the cities just now mentioned had withdrawn from them; so they withdrew from several more, and made a decree among themselves, that none should be admitted into their society but such as stood within the limits of the German empire, or were dependent thereon: except Dantzig, which continued a member, though in nowise dependent on the empire, only it had been summoned formerly to the imperial diet. By this means they maintained their confederacy for the protection of their trade, as it was begun, without being any more envied by their neighbours. Hereby likewise they were reduced to Lubec, Bremen, Hamburg, and Dantzig; in the first of which they kept their register, and held assemblies once in three years at least. But this hanse or union has for some time been dissolved; and now every one of the cities carries on a trade separately for itself, according to the stipulation in such treaties of peace, &c., as are made for the empire betwixt the emperor and other potentates.