Domen
Misico dux Vandalorum
Kaiserguard said:
Takhisis said:
Gdańsk (Danzig) was the main commercial seaport of Poland in period 1466 - 1795 (before 1466 - when Poland had no direct access to the Baltic Sea since Danzig was part of the Teutonic Order's Monastic State, Poland's main commercial seaport was Stettin aka Szczecin, which was part of the Duchy of Szczecin, ruled by dukes from Piast dynasty who were generally friendly towards Poland, while the Teutonic Order was often conflicted with Poland).
Polish export goods were being floated by rafts and boats to Gdańsk (and a few other ports) and from there exported via the Baltic Sea.
Types of river boats most frequently used in Vistula trade were komięga:
And szkuta:
Basin of the Vistula river - almost all of sea export from this area and of sea import to this area was being handled by the seaport in Gdańsk:
Some statistics on trade via the port of Gdańsk:
Number of ships loaded with trade goods calling at the Gdańsk port annually:
1474 - 400
1576 - 700 (274 German, 252 Dutch, 77 Swedish, 58 Finnish & Livonian, 31 French, 19 English & Scottish, 8 Norwegian and 4 Danish)
In further years sometimes 200 ships a da were calling at the Gdańsk port.
Now number of ships with trade goods sailing out of the port of Gdańsk annually:
1430 - 40
1490 - 720
In 1575 in total 1064 trade ships loaded with goods crossed the Oresund strait while sailing from East to West (from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea), of them 945 sailed out of Gdańsk - and this included 516 Dutch, 254 Frisian, 73 English, 58 Scottish and 38 Danish ships.
Polish export of grain via Gdańsk:
1470 - 5,000 tons
1490 - 21,000 tons
1530 - 22,400 tons
1557 - 89,000 tons
1583 - 138,000 tons
In 1583 there was a major famine in Western Europe and as many as 2229 ships entered the Gdansk port that year.
By the end of the 15th century - ca. 22,000 tons annually
In the middle of the 16th century - ca. 110,000 tons annually
The absolute peak of the Polish export of grain was in 1618.
During 1618 in total 1867 ships loaded just with grain exported 282,000 tons of grain.
1634 - 157,000 tons
1650 - 190,530 tons
Poland (and partially also Lithuania - but figures for export via Gdańsk are only for Polish grain, because Gdańsk was the main export center for the Vistula basin) was exporting grain not only to the Netherlands, but also to Spain, Portugal and Italy.
There were some periods during the 16th and 17th centuries, when 2/3 of entire Baltic trade was Danzig trade (so mainly Poland's exports and imports).
The city of Gdańsk itself had a considerable trade fleet, which numbered:
1544 - 50 ships
1568 - 150 ships
1583 - 60 ships
1694 - 64 ships
Gdańsk in the 16th century was also an important center of shipbuilding. Gdańsk was exporting ships to England, Holland, Genoa and Venice.
Even though apart from Gdańsk, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had also other commercial seaports - Elbląg, Puck, Libawa and Riga (Riga was responsible for Lithuanian trade) - their revenues combined were only 1/5 of the value of revenues of Gdańsk / Danzig.
In 1579 in total 340 ships sailed out of Elbląg and 725 out of Konigsberg.
Poland from Elbląg (Elbing), Puck, Libawa and Ryga (Riga), Poland was also using the Królewiec (Konigsberg) commercial seaport for her trade, since Ducal Prussia was a Polish vassal state.
Lithuania - apart from Riga - was also using Klaipeda (Memel) for her trade.
Some goods from Poland were also being exported / imported to Poland via Riga and Klaipeda.
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Dutch trade fleet was the most important trade fleet on the Baltic Sea in the late 16th and the early 17th centuries.
On the western direction of sailing, Dutch ships were between 56,9% and 74% of the movement via the Oresund in the late 16th and early 17th century (Polish trade fleet - i.e. mostly Gdańsk / Danzig trade fleet - was between 10% and 2% of the movement via the Oresund at that time).
One particular Dutch city which was especially seriously involved in the import of Polish grain and wood, was Antwerp and its trade fleet.
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Grain trade was very profitable for the city of Gdańsk, for Polish nobility and for some inhabitants of Polish cities and towns in the Vistula basin.
In years 1537 - 1576 around 65% of entire Vistula grain trade was being carried on by nobility while 35% by townsmen. Later the proportion of grain carried on by nobility increased, since more members of Medium Nobility / Gentry started to be involved in grain business.
Around 73% of agricultural export goods floated via Vistula to Gdańsk was property of nobility, 20% property of townsmen and 7% property of peasants.
Trade carried on by nobility was free from taxes and customs duties.
When arriving at Gdańsk, Polish merchants (whether nobles or townsmen) had to sell their grain to local merchants, as citizens of Gdańsk had a privilege of exclusive trade within the boundaries of their city. So arriving merchants from the rest of Poland had to stop before the city walls and sell their goods to locals.
During the reign of king Casimir Jagiellonczyk merchants from Gdansk were paying 80 zlotys for each łaszt of wheat (in fact 90 zlotys - but of this amount 10 zlotys were being deducted as a warehouse rent) and then selling each łaszt abroad for 140 zlotys - which means their profit was 75%.
Łaszt was a unit of volume used in Poland at that time. One łaszt of wheat = 2400 kg while one łaszt of rye = 2190 kg - statistics on grain trade / grain export in the 16th - 18th centuries are given in łaszts, so I had to convert all numbers to tons (see above). While converting I assumed that one łaszt = 2,19 tons because I suppose that mostly rye was exported, since Poland produced more rye than wheat. One łaszt of barley = 1780 kg and of oat = 1440 kg.
One łaszt = 60 korcy (singular: korzec).
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