Growth of the Cattle Trade

For centuries the Oxen Road has carried armies and merchants up and down the center of Jutland. More than anything, however, it is used to bring thousands of cattle to the great market of Wedel. From there the oxen are brought via Stade, Hamburg and Lübeck and resold all over northern Germany. As population in the late 16th century continues to soar, both in northern Germany in general and the Baltic region in particular, the demand for cattle, grain and fish is rapidly rising. The size of the herds brought south are now approaching 40 000 oxen for each market.\nExport of agricultural produce and especially oxen is earning a fortune of German and Dutch money for our landed nobility and market town burghers. Some worry, however, that this development is empowering the large estates of the nobility while small-time free peasants suffer...