Hildebrand Veckinchusen (born around 1370, probably in Westphalia; died July 1426 in Lübeck) was a merchant living in Bruges (then under the Burgundian State) at the time of the Hanseatic League. In addition to the fact that Hildebrand and his brother Sivert were among the most respected Hanseatic merchants of their time, Veckinchusen is of outstanding importance for research into the business practices and lives of merchants in the late Middle Ages due to the survival of more than 500 letters and ten trade books.
Life Origin and education Hildebrand Veckinchusen's year of birth is not known, but is generally estimated to be around 1370. His mother's first name was "Rixe", his father's is unknown. There is no conclusive information about Hildebrand's origins. Luise von Winterfeld assumes that Hildebrand was also born in Dortmund based on a statement by Hildebrand that he had seen the emperor in Dortmund at the beginning of 1377 when he was a child. Dollinger considers a Livonian city more likely due to the fact that Hildebrand's third brother was a councillor in Riga and mayor between 1402 and 1408 and a Bertold Veckinchusen is documented as a councillor and later mayor in Reval (now Tallinn) between 1342 and 1353. Irsigler, on the other hand, cites an inheritance contract from 1395, recorded before the council of the town of Radevormwald in Westphalia, in which a Gottschalck Veckinchusen compared himself to his brothers Hans, Hildebrand, Sievert, the clergyman Mr. Ludwig and three sisters.Irsigler, Hansekaufleute, p. 304. The fact that the family name "Veckinchusen" is derived from the village of Fockinghausen near Radevormwald or from a village of the same name near Meschede also suggests that Veckinchusen came from Westphalia.Margot Lindemann: Die Herkunft der Familie Veckinchusen, Feckinghaus. In: Beiträge zur Geschichte Dortmunds und der Grafschaft Mark 1980 (72), p. 173–178. In any case, the unusually high mobility of the family should be noted, as merchants of this name appeared throughout the Hanseatic region in the 14th century.
In his youth, Veckinchusen trained as a merchant's assistant in Livonia together with his older brother Sivert before following the latter to Flanders, where he presumably continued his training. His first commercial activities are recorded for the year 1390 in Dordrecht, where Hildebrand had himself certified at the stack that he had duly purchased two terlings of cloth and twelve bots of wine.Stollberg-Rilinger, Barbara. "Hildebrand Veckinchusen: Ein niederrheinischer Kaufmann und seine Zeit." Verlag C.H.Beck, 2000.
Business and social situation around 1400 Hildebrand is mentioned for the years 1393 and 1398 and Sivert for the year 1399 as an alderman of the Hanseatic trading post in Bruges, which indicates a rapid rise in business for the two brothers. This is supported by the fact that Hildebrand's first marriage was to the sister of Dortmund councillor and mayor Claus Swarte. According to Rolf Hammel, this and Sivert's ownership of three houses in Bruges, which later became the residence of the Hanseatic kontor, lead to the conclusion that the two brothers were "among the most respected Hanseatic merchants in Flanders" in those years.Hammel, Hildebrand Veckinchusen, p. 359.
Shortly after the death of his first wife, Hildebrand remarried with the help of his brother Caesar, who lived in Riga. In 1398, Caesar put him in touch with Margarethe Witte (around 1382 - after 1433), who came from a wealthy Riga merchant family and is described in a letter from Caesar to Hildebrand dated July 1, 1398 as a "handsome maiden of 15 years" (sůverlike juncvrouwe van 15 jaren). After a short stay in the house of his father-in-law Engelbrecht Witte, Hildebrand traveled to Novgorod, then fell out with Engelbrecht over a dowry of 100 marks and finally settled in Lübeck, following the example of his brother Sivert.Series Veckinchusen und Kurt Visch in Riga an Hildebrand Veckinchusen in Brügge (July 1, 1398) (full text of Stieda's letter edition in the Wikisource project). There he obtained citizenship and married Taleke, his daughter from his first marriage, to Peter van dem Damme from a Lübeck council family around 1400, thereby expanding his circle of relations in Lübeck. However, Hildebrand returned to Bruges as early as 1402, where he remained until 1426, apart from a few short trips. However, he retained his Lübeck citizenship for the rest of his life; his wife Margarethe and his children also lived in Lübeck.
Expansion and organizational structure of trading activities Thanks to the analysis of business letters discovered by the economic historian Wilhelm Stieda in the last third of the 19th century, it is known that Veckinchusen was involved in a widely ramified network of trade relations from Flanders, mainly based on family ties, which spanned the entire Hanseatic region from Novgorod to London and extended south to Venice and west to Bayonne on the French Atlantic coast.
Organizationally, the Veckinchusens' business was often based on trading companies that were entered into with a small number of partners for a fixed period of time. This form of organization offered the advantage that larger capital could be invested and the risk for the individual could be reduced. The capital investment was usually divided equally between the individual partners and profits and losses were later also shared equally.Stieda, Wilhelm. "Die Geschäftsbriefe des Hildebrand Veckinchusen: Ein Beitrag zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Spätmittelalters." Verlag C.H.Beck, 1890.
Unlike in the mid-13th century, when Hanse merchants usually accompanied their goods themselves and sold them in barter, Hildebrand Veckinchusen managed his business from his Bruges office and only traveled on important occasions, such as the regular trade fairs. The goods bearing his house mark were usually entrusted to the carrier - in the case of sea trade transactions, the captain of the merchant ship concerned - or accompanied by a journeyman and sold at their destination by Veckinchusen's correspondent.
Trade between Flanders and Livonia
At the beginning of the 15th century, Veckinchusen traded mainly with Livonia, where he shipped cloth, salt and spices and bought wax and furs in return. Hildebrand and his brother Sivert were organized into several trading companies for this trade between Flanders and Livonia. On August 3, 1405, they entered into a company together with the brothers Hartwig and Gottschalk Steenhus, whose individual transactions are described in detail in a comprehensive account by the Riga councillor Hartwig Steenhus from December 1407.Hartwych Stenhus in Riga an Sivert Veckinchusen in Lübeck (December 20, 1407) (full text of Stieda's letter edition in the Wikisource project). According to Walter Stark's calculations, the Veckinchusen/Steenhus company made a profit of 12% in the two years of its existence, although this would not have been achieved if a single very successful transaction involving wax from Livonia to Lübeck had not made up for the losses of the other sub-operations.Stark, Profit beim hansischen Handelskapital, p. 40–54, here p. 53. In 1406, Hildebrand and his brother Sivert founded another trading company together with partners in Reval and Dorpat, which, however, did not make a profit in the six years of its existence, as the profits from the sale of cloth did not offset the losses from the fur and wax trade.Stark, Profit beim hansischen Handelskapital, p. 54. Irsigler attributes this to the fact that the price level for these goods on the Flemish and Livonian markets had converged too far at that time.Irsigler, Hansekaufleute, p. 310.
The "Venice selscop"
In the first decade of the 15th century, twelve merchants, including Sivert and Hildebrand Veckinchusen, founded the so-called "venedyesche selscop" (Venetian Company) in order to establish direct contacts with northern Italy and eliminate the Venetian middlemen based in Bruges. The members of the Venetian Company transported their goods almost exclusively by land and sold the goods they bought in Venice, such as spices, sugar, brazilwood, alum and incense, on the markets of Flanders, England, the Holy Roman Empire and Scandinavia. In return, amber prayer wreaths, cloth and furs were brought to Venice. By 1409, the business of the Venetian Company was apparently doing so well that the partners Peter Karbow, Heinrich Slyper and Sivert Veckinchusen wrote a letter from Cologne to their Bruges co-partners Heinrich op dem Orde and Hildebrand Veckinchusen proposing an increase in the company's capital from 5,000 to 11,000 marks in Lübisch.Sivert Veckinchusen, Peter Karbow und Heinrich Slyper in Köln an Heinrich op dem Orde und Hildebrand Veckinchusen in Brügge (April 14, 1409) (full text of Stieda's letter edition in the Wikisource project). Presumably due to the ruinous business practices of the merchant Peter Karbow, who was sent to Venice on behalf of the trading company, and his nephew of the same name, the Venetian Company fell into a crisis around 1411. Karbow purchased overpriced goods and ruined the prices on the Venetian market with an oversupply of furs, so that in April 1411 the goods purchased in Venice worth around 70,000 ducats were ultimately offset by Hanseatic trade goods worth around 53,000 ducats. Moreover, the company's large turnover could only be financed by bills of exchange drawn on partners based in Bruges, Cologne and Lübeck, which often matured before the date of sale of the goods. Added to this was the apparent dishonesty of Peter Karbow, who was finally arrested in Lüneburg in 1412. After his capture, Karbow gave up all the goods stored in Venice to society in order to buy his freedom. The ban on trade with Venice issued by King Sigismund in 1417 marked the end of the company.Knauer, Friedrich. "Die Handelsgeschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck von der Gründung bis zum Beginn des 16. Jahrhunderts." Verlag C.H.Beck, 1909.
Lack of money and risky business The first signs of Hildebrand Veckinchusen's business decline can be found in the reminders from his business partners from 1414 onwards, which indicate that Veckinchusen was at times in dire financial straits.Wilhelm Weits und Lamsin Kupere in Brügge an Hildebrand Veckinchusen (August 21, 1421) (full text of Stieda's letter edition in the Wikisource project). Hammel attributes these problems to the losses in trade with the East caused by sales problems.Hammel, Hildebrand Veckinchusen, p. 361f. Added to this was the fact that Veckinchusen did not get back his share of a loan made to the Roman-German King Sigismund in 1417 on his accession to power when he was pressed by his creditors.
However, Hildebrand did not give up the risky trade with Venice. In 1417/18, he suffered considerable losses when he sent a large quantity of cloth to Venice, apparently misjudging the market situation. In May 1418, two bills of exchange drawn on London burst, foreshadowing the later catastrophe. In the late summer of 1418, Hildebrand moved to Lübeck with his family and bought a prestigious house in Königstrasse. Shortly afterwards, he returned to Bruges without his wife and children and was elected Alderman of the Bruges Kontor in 1419, which indicates that he still enjoyed credit and prestige in Bruges, at least at this time.
Debtor's prison and death The high interest rates that Veckinchusen had to pay to the Bruges-based moneylenders for the loans he had taken out up to that point made him increasingly dependent on them. Added to this was the failure of a speculation in French salt, which caused his Livonian business partners to become disgruntled. As the situation continued to deteriorate, Hildebrand used the Antwerp Whitsun Fair in the spring of 1421 to flee from his creditors. After stays in Lübeck and Cologne, however, he returned to Bruges in the fall of 1421 to attempt to repay his loans.