In 1442, the German merchants in Oslo and Tønsberg complained bitterly to Lübeck and other Hanseatic towns about what they saw as a violation of their privileges by the Norwegian authorities. They mentioned by name the commanders of the royal castles at Tønsberg and Oslo, who belonged to Norway's aristocratic and political elite in the first half of the fifteenth century. As members of the Norwegian Council of the Realm and commanders of castles in towns where German merchants were trading, these two noblemen were leading proponents of a determined Norwegian policy that sought to reduce the German merchants’ dominant trading position. The aim of this policy was not to expel German merchants from Norway, but rather to reduce and limit their economic role.

According to the German merchants, the commander in Oslo, Sigurd Jonsson (Sørum) had declared that he would try with all his power and all his men to drive them out of Norway, even if it meant that he would have to drink water for the rest of his life. Sigurd Jonson's reference to drinking water alluded to the danger of good German beer disappearing from Norway along with the German merchants: Norwegians had come to prefer German beer to their own.

Drink for Survival, Pleasure, or Drunkenness?

People were thirsty in the Middle Ages. The food was salty due to preserving and most people carried out more heavy manual labour than they do today. Besides water and milk, the only other drinking alternatives in the Middle Ages were beer and wine.