Danzig -- History -- Relations to France
Trade with France accounted for the largest percentage of ships entering and leaving the Danzig harbor. During its most affluent years in the seventeenth century visitors remarked on the ability of its (wealthy) citizens to speak French (indeed also Latin) as fluently as they spoke German. While French was important for the cultural elite, for merchants and for diplomats, because the town was Protestant and a republic, local culture reflected Dutch and Anglo-Saxon influences more heavily than French.