I could have listened to this for a few hours.

This lecture was very interesting and I am amazed how simple goods in trade can create such a magnificent influence in a region.

I'm sorry, but Abulafia says nothing here that any diligent high school student presenting a research paper could not have done. He asks the audience to tell him whether his book coheres then proceeds to skip around the centuries as if they are all the same. No Prof Abulafia, it does not 'cohere'. Why not tell the audience some interesting facts about Lubeck, i.e. that they produced the first internationally recognised maritime laws; they took on and defeated a sovereign power after that same soveriegn power had sacked Wisby in an act of vandalism only match at the time by the crusaders; that Lubeck's population never experienced famine or a breach of those walls he mentioned throughout the 500 years it remained the centre of the Hansa? Instead of boostering the Dutch by referring to the chap who first successfully pickled a barrel of herrings, why not hail the fact that the people of Lubeck were pickling over 100,000 barrels a year by 1390, which was quite an undertaking for the times. I had to research this period for a book I wrote The People of the Hansa. I am not an academic, but what he tells us here I picked up on the first day of my research endeavours. The story of the Hansa is fascinating and has much to teach us. Is it too much to think that such an eminent professor should do a little better?

i just love the enthusiasm of the dude who is doing the introduction. He's absolutely hilarious, and clearly loves this shit!

23:47 that is a Schnicka not a cog. And at 33:05 that is a hulk, also not a cog. Also the Vikings did not overlap with the Hanseatic Trade league. They came before.

Not the Hoch Deutsch but the Ditschen. Frisians laid the foundation for st. Petersburg by the way and still have their streets there.

Has anyone found anything about this Wilhelm Berkelson, who is said to have invented the method for pickled herring? [34:12]

Seriously what is with the first gentleman making those ridiculous "smacking" noises with his lips. Really irritating.

I have a question that how are Hanseatic league and WTO alike?

This chap looks and sounds very much like Matheson, who set up the operation in 'The Wild Geese'! I thought he got killed in the end.

15-20% ROE

A minute in and his tie already keeps pissing me off

Germanics= the Greeks and Phoenicians of the north.

If only this man, the first speaker, would speak a little bit better, clearer English ... like this, only his buddies from London can understand him ...

This era, architecture and civilisation is quite interesting and beautiful to me. But , as a Greek, I need to inform you my Barbaric friends that all this was nothing compared to the riches of the south (Venice, Jenoa and the rest). Again, you can't compared to the south. And soon your barbaric monopoly of the Europe will collapse, even if the peoples of this continent, need to vote for extreme right nationalistic racists, instead of democratic, communistic governments. But at least we ll collapse you. thanks.