Commentary: the Hanseatic League (Hansea) was a power which for 500 years managed to influence political and economical relations in the Baltic Sea basin. Town members of Hansea were very strongly bound with ties of solidarity. Their sense of unity was based on a will to control north-European trade route and organizing trade exhanchge from the West to the East and from the East to the West. The union had monopoly on trade in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

See also:
A letter of representatives of Bruges bureau regarding forgery of furs, dated the 16th of February 1446. Hansea as a union of trade towns was already in obvious decline, although some of its biggest towns - like Hamburg and Gdańsk - were in their prime. The most important place of trade exchange and a source of prosperity of Gdansk was its port on the Wisla. Here were coming in and from here were sailing away newly built ships from Gdansk, beer from Hamburg, iron from Cologne, copper from Krakow, crop from Mazowsze, ash from Podkarpacie (Sub-Carpathia), fresh oysters from England, fabric, gold and porcelain from Asia. At that time merchants from Gdańsk were giving loans to kings of Poland and a port of Gdansk with its affluent Wyspa Spichrzów (the Isle of Granaries) was called Aurea Porta - the Golden Gate of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania. That's why burghers of Gdansk took so much care about entrance canals of the port on the Wisła.

The sea map of the northern part of Zatoka Gdanska, made by Clemens in 1596, is the oldest known map of these waters. In 1594 the Town Council of Gdańsk employed Walter Clemens, an engineer and a cartographer of Dutch origin, on 12-year long contract. His duties was to keep a proper depth of entrance fairways at the Gdansk port and to maintain hydrotechnical devices on Zulawy. Due to his diligence Clemens gained fame of a well-known engineer. He and Gdansk town authoriteis received offers of contracts from Swedish prince Charles and Emperor Rudolf II. In September 1596 Clemens made a navigational sea map of the western part of Zatoka Gdanska. It is the oldest known map of these waters of navigational purpose, which stands out because of its astonishing accuracy and precision of mapping details. Many sea map sketched by Clemens is today known only from copies. They make a crucial starting point for researches on the development of the port of Gdansk and the Delta of Wisła from the 16th to 20th century (Stanisław Flis)

External description: Original, in Italian, German, Dutch, one pergameneous sheet, size 810x510 mm, colourful, 1 page.

Location: the State Archive in Gdansk, Records of the town of Gdansk, Collection of Gdansk plans and maps, Catalogue no. 300,MP/509.