Export and trading

With horses and carts

Carters exported Raeren stoneware packed in straw with carts and horses into the whole world. They often travelled for months on unpaved paths and roads. On their way back they brought salt from North Germany and Westfalia as well as the latest news from all around the world.

In the surrounding areas, peddlers sold defective jugs at reduced prices from their carrying frames.

Fuhrwerk mit Bezeichnungen in Raerener Mundart, Zeichnung von Peter Emontspohl, 1978

Raeren, Cologne and the Hansa

From the Middle Ages onwards, the hansa town Cologne was the most important transshipment centre for Rhenish ceramics. On the market of Cologne also the Raeren potters sold their stoneware. From Cologne it was exported via the Rhine and the commercial routes of the Hanseatic League to Northern and Eastern Europe. Exports to the South were rare as they had their own extensive ceramic production. 

From Raeren into the whole world

From the end of the 16th century onwards, Rhenish stoneware was exported into the whole then known world. The English, the Dutch and the Spanish used ceramics as storing devices on their ships. They also sold the stoneware vessels in their colonies (North and Central America, Australia and South-East Asia).

Up to today archaeologists around the world keep finding Raeren stoneware during excavations or on ship wrecks.