THE BALTICAND THE BLACK SEA IN MEDIEVALTRADE by MARIAN MALO WIST (WARSAW, POLAND) The object of this paper is to give a short outlinc knowledge of the history of l3altic commerce. The of the history of Black Sea and Baltic trade during the literature on Black Sea trade is hardly less extensive: Middle Ages, and to examinethe reciprocalaction of W. Heyd's works are probably the rnost important,but thesetwo importanthistorical phen.omena. Considera- m,uchvaluable information is also given in the writings tions of space exclude the possibility of making an ex- of F. Bruun, Manfroni,C. Bratianuand Canale. The haustivestudy of the enormouscomplex oi problems periodicalpublications Atti della SocietdLigure di Sto- connectedwith the subject,and henceno atternptwill ria Patria ot Genoa, anclZapiski Odeskago, Obshestva, be macjeto deal with matterswhich do not appearto Istorii i Drevnostiei ( Records of the Historical and be ol primary importance. AntiquarianSociety of Odeosa),likewise contain material There is already a very copious literature dealing of great interest. A certain amount has been written rvith the historyof tradeon the Baltic.The outstanding concerningthe Black Sea by Polish authors,but econo- works are those of Daenelle, Schlfer and Rdrig, but riric history has so tar receivecilittle attention. Ku- there are many other German, Dutch and Scandinavian trzeba'sHandel Krakowa z Wschodem(Cracow's trade writers whose works merit attention. Arnongst the with the East), and the writings of D4browski, Kolan- Polish writers on the subject, Kutrzeba, Widajewicz, kowski, Halecki, Charewicz and G6rka are among the Wachowski and Koczy have done much to extend our more important works on this subject. BALTICAND EUXINETRADE IN THE EARLYMIDDLE AGES TRADE IN THE VIKING ERA The great inland waterway,swere used by the The iirst animated contacts between the Black Vikings vfte rpenetratedinto the heart of present-day Sea and the Baltic appeared in early medieval Russia and Ukraine, and reached the Black Sea. times and lasted more or less from the middle of the Scandinavianhistorians affirm that this advance to- 9th to the middle of the llth century. Of the many lvards the south-eastwas conductedacording to a set European peoples who endeavouredto establish com- plan directed by the rulers of Svealand. But this sup- mercial'relations between the Black Sea and the rest of position likewise appears to 'be highly problematical, Europe, the Vikings showed most enterprise and since it is improbable that the ru,lersof such a small energy. According to A. Bugge, and H. and A. Schfick, realm, and one constantly harrassedby warlike nelgh- there rvas an i6,portant mercantilecentre on the Baltic bours, could have developed such lar-reaching and as early as in the 8th century: this was Bjdrko (or comprehensiveplans. It is much more likely that Birca), situated on a small island in Lake lliilar, in various smalI companiesof warriors effected the con- Sweden. These investigatorssuppose that this trading questof the Russianand Ukrainianlanrds on their own settlementwas the point of issue ior the expeditions initiative; they proceeded along the most convenient ot the SwedishVikings to the south-east,and they lind routes,occupied the richer districts and iounded settle- supportfor their surmisein the namesof some settle- ments at the most important economic,strategical and ments in Finlanicland in the Ukraine, for there is a political points. It is, theretore,much more ,probable Bjdrkd on the Gulf of Finland and a Berezany at the that the internal logic of conquest rather than any mouth of the Dnieper. They take this aifinity as evi- previously conceivedplan, was the decisive factor at dence that Swedish Bjorko served as a rnodel tor the work in this case. organization set up by the Vikings, but this theory The chief inland line of communicationfronr the would not appear to be very well grounded. Baltic to the south led from the Culf ot Finland, along voL. ilt- No. t. iil. IANUAR|' 1937 THE BALT{C {N"D THE BLACK SE.{ 15-A{ED{EVAL rR.ADE the Neva and Lake Volkhov, to Novgorod, thenceto the barbarism and cut them off trom the sources oi their Dnieper,along that river to Kiev, and by land to the Byzantine civilization. Rostovtsev and Pokrovsky, Crimea and Kherson. There the Vikings embarked however, point to the influenceof other lactors. They and so reachedMiklagaard (the Great City), as the surmise that the trade of the Russian towns with the Vikings called Constantinople, which so strongly Near East had been chietly based on the products attracted them rvith its polver and fabulous riches. exacted as tribute from the subjected rural population, There was another route which branched off at Nov- and that the coun,tryhad, as a result, been so impover- gorod and ran to the Volga,, towards ltil ancl ished by nrany centuriesof this practice that trade was Bul'gar,thence by the Caspian Sea to Persia and the already dying out, in the 12th century, owing to the other Asiatic countries. The third route ran from iirsufticientsupply of goods. To-day it is ditficult to Novgorod to the sourcesoi the Don, and down that decidewhich of theseviews is more in accordancewith liver to the Sea oi Azov. the lacts: in any case,the point with which the present In time, such townships as Rostow and Kiev paper dealsis the declinein this trade as having been ivere founded by the Vikings, who forced the subjected the causeof a rupture in the economi.crelations between native populationto pay regulartribute in kind. Ac- the Baltic regionand the Greco-Byzantineand Turanian cording to Rostovtsev and Pokrovsky, the stocks of lands. This was of enornroussignificance, as from that merchandisethus accumulated served as the basis ot time the vaststretches oi easternEurope lost their great a lively barter trade with the surppliersof oriental pro- importanceto the economiclife oi the Middle Ages, and ciuce. In addition, however,goods of lvesternEuropean conrmercialintercourse between western Europe and and Baltic provenancewere transportedoverland and the Near East was,maintained through the intermediary disposedof in the East. The Norsemen kept northern oi quite other countriesand trade routes. Europe supplied with the produce of the East, as wit- ness the numerous articles of Byzantine and Arabian BALTIC TRADE IN THE IIth AND I2th CENTURIES origin lound in the Baltic region. The chief centresof ln the meantime,Iar-reaching changes also occu'r- this trade were Kiev, ltil and Bulgar, where Oreek, red on the Baltic. Bjorko was pillaged and burned to Arabian and Persian merchants traded with their Sla- the ground by the Norwegiansc. 1000; the old Swedish vonic and Scandinaviancolleagues; it was there thai emporium never recoveredirom the disasier, and the <telicatcfabrics, spices, essential oils and the other Sigtuna, also situated on Lake M2ilar, supplanted it valirablegoods of the Orient and Near East were and throughoutthe I lth and 12th centuriesremained exchanged for furs, wa.x, certain metals, and slaves. one of the most important ports of call for the transport At times, traciersfrom Kherson or Jrom Asia Minor of orientalgoods to the Danish city of Heidebu.Swedish penetrated farther inland, rvhil'st the Varegian boats merchan'tswere not the only traders who proceeded to appearedon the waters oi the Bosphorus.The Vikings Denmark in pursuit of their calling: the chronicles clid not always come to Constantinopleas merchants: also mention merchantsfrom Novgorod who lourneyed many of thern made the journey especiallyto enlist in to Jutland. At this period, the merchants of Goitland the Varangian Guarcl. The Russ dukes, Oleg and began to play a more and more important r6le in Baltic Sviatoslav, made an unsuccesslulattempt to subject trade. Their island was exceptionaltywell situated for Constantinoplein the year 859 and again in 907, but internationaltrade, and it became the chief centre for more amicablerelations were establishedsoon after. northerncommerce during the 12th and 13ih centuries, The first Russo-Byzanti.netreaiy of commercewas con- especiallyafter the ruin of Sigtuna by a pirate raid in cludeclin 912, and after the conversionto Christianityof I187. The Gottlanderswent as far afield as Novgorod, Vladimir theGreat, the tiesbetween Russia and Bvzantium and we know that they built a church there in 1156. becamemrrch closer and relationsmore intimate. They later establishedtheir 'factories' and warehouses (Gotenhof) in that city-a move of the utmost value to DECLINE OF RUSSLANTRADE WITH THE EAST them, as Novgorodlvas at that time the chief emporium The conquest of the Black Sea region by the for north Russian trade. Valuable furs, iorest and ,products, Piechengyand the Polovtsyin the 11th and 12th cen- agricultural and metals from the Urals were turies caused a radical change in the situation. The bought and sol'd, as were also oriental goods, for the invasionof the nomadsvirtually stoppedcom'munication city maintai,nedrelations with the Asiatic countries. It between northern Europe and the Eastern Empire. is diffioult to state how tar the Gottland merchants Solovyev, Kliuchevsky and Pirenne consider that the contributed to restore commercial relations with the incursions of the Turanian peoples caused an inter- Black Sea lands, whose economic life was, for that ruption in commercial relations between north-eastern nratter,thenr passing through a period of decl,ine. The Europe and the Near East which lasted lor many sparsesource-material available contains no clue which centuries:they certainly plunged the Russianlands into might elucid'atethis point. 38 M. MALOWIST BALTIC AND SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES I TFiE HANSEATICPERIOD THE FIANSA IN BALTIC TRADE unrestrictedtrade in all Poland and in Red Ruthertia, Visby, the capital ot Gottland, lvas undoubtedly which he had just annexed. Creat economicpossibili- the most im,portantmercantile centre on the Baltic in ties now awaited the burghers of Toruf : they aimed the first half of the 13th century, but this period ot consistently at the organization of commerce so that great prosperitywas not of long duration.