“To afford protection to certain Scottish merchants who were going to Bremen, Lubeck and Hamburg to trade, and promising protection to the merchants of the Hanseatic League, when their mercantile affairs should bring them to Scotland. If they read the the records of any other countries of that time, notably those of the Genoese and Venetian Republics and many others shortly after they were instituted, they would find a widely different spirit to that which animated the national hero of Scotland. Nearly every one of those other Republics cut themselves off by inpenetrable walls of protection - by arms, by tariffs, and by sustoms - in order that their merchants should be protected: but Wallace understood clearly that there could be no international goodwill without international reciprocity and protection to the merchants of the various nationalities.” ScotlandWilliam WallaceHanseatic LeagueLubeck Letter Book:Self Government for Scotland Source: Self Government for Scotland