It was really important because it was a chance to continue Hanseatic trade route, for that the channel had to be built between two great cities, that´s why these cities were chosen.
The 1300´s land route and later canal connecting Lubeck with Hamburg is so important because Lubeck had become a very important merchant´s base by those days, having access to the Baltic and North Sea. In 1241 it formed an alliance with Hamburg, which in turn controlled access to salt trade routes.
