ABSTRACT
Among the many elements of economic activity associated with the Teutonic Order in Prussia, trade did not take a prominent place. Quite to the contrary: Jurgen Sarnowsky has shown that trade contributed only about 10% of the revenues of the central authorities. By contrast, the social and political consequences of the involvement of the Teutonic Knights in commercial activity appear to have been rather significant. This chapter analyses the activities of two state officials whose duties involved engagement in long-distance trade, that is, the trade officials of the Teutonic Order, the Grobschaffer of Konigsberg and of Marienburg, at the turn of the fifteenth century. In medieval Europe, monastic institutions, hospitals and chivalric orders were involved in trade. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, about 90% of the trade turnover of the Teutonic Order derived from the Prussian towns.
