Hitler's Table Talk

THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE 373
One might speak likewise of the influence of Lola Montez
over Ludwig I of Bavaria. The latter was, by nature, .a reasonable
and understanding king. But that woman completely
drove him from his course.
176 2Qth March 1942, at dinner
Commercial honesty in the Middle Ages—Five hundred
years of honesty—Legal juggling—Reforms in the magistrature—Three
good lawyers.
The Fuehrer had alluded to the respect enjoyed by merchants and
princes during the Middle Ages. In the discredit now attached to them,
he saw the work of the Jews.
The Hanseatic League should not be regarded solely as an
instrument of political power. It also personified, on the level
of relations between individuals, a conception of justice. For
example, it never agreed to carry a consignment unless it was
provided with a sure guarantee of the weight and quality of the
goods. Equipped with the Hansa's seal, the goods thereby enjoyed
a high reputation, both in the interior of the country and
abroad. A case is cited of some cloth merchants who had employed
the Hanseatic agency in Lübeck to send a bale of linen
to Bergen. Now, this merchandise did not correspond to the
Hansa's specifications, with the result that, by way of a sanction,
the guilty city was excluded for a period of ten years from
the traffic of the League. What is important to notice is that
the decision was not taken as the result of a complaint by the
addressee, but simply as the result of a check-up held at the
outset. It was observed that the merchandise did not correspond
to the specifications, a few threads of flax were absent in
the weaving of the linen.
It was not one of the Hansa's least merits to have stabilised
the notion of commercial probity, as it is still honoured in some
houses in Bremen and Hamburg. It was thanks to very severe
sanctions, and even to barbarous punishments, that gradually
this conception of probity in trade was established. When the
Hansa refused its seal to a merchant, for the latter, in view of the