What attracted the Hanseatic merchant to the North? Throughout the Middle Ages they acquired fish from Bergen ΓÇö mainly cod, whose demand was great in the Catholic Europe during Lent. Food products, cattle and, for instance, the herring of Scania was exported from Denmark to Hanseatic towns. From Sweden, and especially from Stockholm, the merchants exported iron, copper, furs and butter. Furs, hides and food products, such as butter, also spread to Europe from Turku. The fur trade prospered in the 14th century. The junction of HansaΓÇÖs eastern trade was Tartu, through which furs, beeswax and other commodities flowed from Novgorod and other Russian places to the west.
