Trade during the Viking Age

Map showing the major Varangian trade routes: the Volga trade route (in red) and the Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks (in purple). Other trade routes of the eighth-eleventh centuries shown in orange.
Trade negotiations in the country of Eastern Slavs. Pictures of Russian history. (1909). Vikings sold people they captured in Europe to Arab merchants in Russia.
Samanid coins found in the Spillings Hoard.

While the Vikings are perhaps best known for accumulating wealth by plunder, tribute, and conquest, they were also skilled and successful traders. The Vikings developed several trading centres both in Scandinavia and abroad as well as a series of long-distance trading routes during the Viking Age (c. 8th Century AD to 11th Century AD). Viking trading centres and trade routes would bring tremendous wealth and plenty of exotic goods such as Arab coins, Chinese Silks, and Indian Gems.[1]: 10  Vikings also established a "bullion economy" in which weighed silver, and to a lesser extent gold, was used as a means of exchange. Evidence for the centrality of trade and economy can be found in the criminal archaeological record through evidence of theft, counterfeit coins, and smuggling.[2] The Viking economy and trade network also effectively helped rebuild the European economy after the fall of the Roman Empire [1]: 123 

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Winroth2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Kalmring, Sven (2010). Of Thieves, Counterfeiters and Homicides: Crime in Hedeby and Birka.

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