This article analyses the relationship between the port-city of Bremen and its different hinterlands. It examines four determinants of port–hinterland linkages: the political framework; the volume and pattern of trade; the extent and significance of population transfers; and Bremen's contribution to the transmission of cultural innovation. It focuses, in turn, on trade, migration and cultural exchange as distinct, but interrelated, fields of interaction and discusses new theoretical approaches for understanding the historical complexity of port–hinterland relations and the extent to which trading, migration and cultural hinterlands were part of an interactive system.