You have probably heard of the Hanseatic League, the Great Trade Network that dominated the Baltic Sea in the 13th and 14th century, and that still gives its name to some German cities like my spiritual hometown, Hamburg. But how did the Hanse actually work? You see, the challenge for the Hanse merchant was that they traded it in bulky wares, in herring, in wood, in grain, in furs, in wine, et cetera, not the silks and spices the fancy Venetian shipped around the place. And that caused some idio