Study title

This study on the Hanseatic city of Lübeck has been created within the scope of the joint research project ´Wirtschaftliche Wechsellagen im hansischen Wirtschaftsraum 1300-1800´ (“Changing economic situations within the Hanseatic economic area”). The research project ´ Changing economic situations within the Hanseatic economic area 1300-1800´ was patronised by the Volkswagen-Stiftung in line with the company`s promotional focus ´Forschungen zur frühneuzeitlichen Geschichte: Das Alte Reich im europäischen Kontext´ (´Research on Early Modern Times: The Old Reich in the European context´), which is a cooperative international project, with the participation of 35 researchers from 10 European countries and Canada. The project traces the intertemporal relations of the Hanseatic League`s economic structure in its own area, as well as the changes of these relations within their regional and “international” context on the basis of historical and economic time series. In doing so, the study aims at: I. – establishing economic-historical time series for the economic area of the Hanseatic League in the period between 1300 and 1800, detailed comments on the original dates and on the gold and silver equivalents of the relevant fiat money systems for the translation of the nominal data. II. – statistical analyses of time series with regard to the economic cycle and to changing economic situations. Economic-historical time series are considered visible indicators of economic processes. In order to identify these changing economic situations and cycles, the deployed time series underwent an empirical-statistical description. The expected findings aim for the compilation of pre-industrial time series. Furthermore, they examine the possible existence of periodical cycles and the question if such circles – compared with regard to space and time - took the same or opposite directions. III. – the interpretation of these time series in respect of selected historical questions....