Hanseatic Cities

The Hanseatic League (also known as the Hanse or Hansa) was an alliance of trading cities and their guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly along the coast of Northern Europe, from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland, during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period (c.13th–17th centuries). The Hanseatic cities had their own law system and furnished their own protection and mutual aid.
The new Hanse currently has 175 member towns and cities in 15 European countries, making it the largest voluntary association of towns and cities in the world. The members comprise not only the Hanseatic towns and cities themselves, but also some of the former large depots such as Novgorod in north-west Russia, as well as some of the smaller trading posts.