An outgrowth of a storage right in a natural trading center (Trade), the right of staple had already become a mandatory requirement by the high Midde Ages: traveling merchants were required to “staple” (i.e. store) their goods at a specific place – often a river crossing or a crossroads – for a specific length of time and offer them for sale to the local population. This could be accompanied by the obligation to sell the goods at that place and no other – a privilege that the Hanseatic League, for example, had ext…