 According to the author, what made open trade so accessible in the 14th century?
What cities in the post-Brexit era could learn from a 14th-century trading bloc As you fly from the country now known as Germany to Britain, the coastal geography of northern European cities gently unfurls. By their nature cities along coasts and rivers developed so they could be open to trade with each other. From the middle of the 13th century, and for some 300 years after, many settlements dotted along this route formed the prosperous Hanseatic League, a European trading confederation of market towns, before the rise of the nation state led to its dissolution. The Hanseatic cities developed their own legal system, and their armies came to one another's aid. In some ways it was an exercise in what we today call 'soft diplomacy'.
 Settlement along geographically accessible areas
 Prevalence of natural resources in concentrated areas  Agreement on shared principles of commerce  Settlement along geographically accessible areas  Inclusion of both rural and urban community members