For a long period in the 14th to 16th centuries, in the Wendischer Münzverein, the core cities of the Hanseatic League – Lübeck, Hamburg, Lüneburg, Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund – shared a common currency, the “Lübische Mark”. Today, a far wider group of great port cities shares a common currency.
The ports of the old Hanse-cities Bremen, Hamburg, Lübeck, Rostock, Wismar and Tallinn all lie within the euro area – but so too do Helsinki, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Bordeaux, Cadiz, Porto, Marseilles, Genoa and Venice – to name but a few. The European single market is a vast economy. The euro area itself is a truly continental economy.