The Hansa, the German Guild of Merchants, created an overseas office at Bryggen in 1360 and for almost 400 years they dominated this side of town.
From the 13th to the middle of the 15th century, the Hanseatic League dominated the trade between the north-east and the north-west of Europe, and covered the raw material and food supplies of the West from the East, and the east with the Western products. These included, for example, furs, wax, grain, fish, flax, hemp, wood and timber products such as pitch, tar and potato. In return, the Hanseatic merchants brought into these countries the industrial finished products of the West and South like cloths, metal goods, especially weapons, and spices.
