The annual Scania Market for herring, held from August 24 to October 9 at the Falsterbo Peninsula, chiefly between the two towns of Skanör and Falsterbo, at the southern mouth of Öresund, is a major event in the Hanseatic world around the Baltic Sea, and the cornerstone of the Hanseatic Leagues' wealth.
Beside the Hansa, also traders from England, Scotland, Flanders and Normandy come to the herring market, trading a wide variety of different goods, among them horses, butter, iron, tar, grain and handicraft products from the North, Prussia, and Livonia.
The basis for the market's popularity is the rich herring fishing around the peninsula.
During the fishing season, the necessary salt and barrels for conservation are provided by Hanseatic traders mainly from Lübeck, and to some extent also the work force, ensuring a swift salting of the landed fish.
The demand for herring, which is salted with salt from Hanseatic Lüneburg, is great as the Catholic Church demands fasting (from meat), in Christ's following, in connection with Lent.
In a strict sense, even Friday is considered a meat-free day.
The fishing and the Scanian market yield a large income to the Danish Crown, and together with the Sound Toll make the state virtually independent of tax incomes for extended periods of time.
A good fishing year in the fourteenth century can mean an export of three hundred thousand barrels of herring; it is estimated that one third of the Danish king's income came from the Scanian market, which, due to the large production and the great demand, has become the most important market of the region in the fourteenth century.
Most of the fourteenth century has been characterized by strife and wars between Danish kings and the Hansa, although with the Treaty of Stralsund a peace had been settled in 1370 that had left the Hanseatic League in control of the Scanian herring fishery for fifteen years.
The abundance of herring abruptly ceases abruptly, however, in the beginning of the fifteenth century.
