Large shipping centres supplied much of Europe's long-distance carrying capacity in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Venice and Genoa combined shipping with merchant and financial capital, while the Basque provinces helped develop the fully rigged ship. Brittany, Normandy and the northern Netherlands were further centres of ship ownership. Lübeck, Hamburg and Danzig joined smaller Baltic cities in the Hansa, described as a cartel-like alliance concerned with maritime trade. These centres could organise convoys and other forms of protection. Their large merchant vessels, including Italian merchant galleys, could also be converted into powerful warships.
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The commercial centres that supplied ships and convoy protection
Named European shipping centres show how merchant capital supplied large vessels, convoy organisations and ships that could be converted for war.