THB BATTICCOMMERCE OF THB WESTRUSSIAN AND I,ITHUANIANCITIES DURING THB MIDDTEAGBS byGEoRcE VeRNADSKy (NE\I/ HAVgN, CONN., U.S.A.) I THE GEOCRAPHICALAND EARLYHISTORICAL BACKGROUND The geographicalbackground of the presentstudy centuriescanal,s were dug to join these various river is formedby the south-easternBaltic, i.e., the combined basinsin order to promote commercebetween the Battic basinsof the riversVistula (especially its easternpart), and both the Black Seaand the CaspianSea. Since there Niemen,Dvina, Narova and Neva. were practicallyno canalsin theseregions in the Middle Owing to the poor conditionof the overlandroutes Ages, the usual way to ship the goods from one river in EasternEurope in the MidclleAges, the importance basin to anotherwas to send them overland.Sometimes of rivers as commercialhighways at that time cannot small boats, including their loads, were put on wheels, be over-estimated.It was chietly up the rivers that the and taken to their destinationin this manner. In other goodsbrought from the poris of the westernBaltic and cases boats were unloaded in the upper reachesof a from Flanders to the ports of the south-easternBaltic river, their freights carried on carts to the upper rvaters could be re-shipped inland to the Russian and Lithu- of the next river, and there re-loadedon boats. aniantrading cities, situated as thesewere on the banks Owing to the fact that in the Middle Ages the of the upper reachesof the rivers of the south-eastern virgin lorests of norih-western Russia and Lithu,ania Baltic basin. Commercialintercourse did not come to were but slightly touched by the axe, the water-level in an end in these regions, however. In addition to local the majority of rivers was then much higher than it is trade, the West Russianand Lithuanian cities were of to-day. Navigation on small craft was renderedpossible importancein the Middle Ages as intermediarylinks in even on small rivers which at the presentday are lost the chain of international commerce bringing together in swamps. the trade of the Baltic with the trade of the Black Sea, The importanceof the West Russianand Lithu'anian and of the Caspian Sea. In other words, the West cities in the Middle Ages was primarily due to their Russianand Lithuaniancities linked togetherN0rthern control over the 'upperwaters of the Baltic range of this Europeand the Orient. great network of waterways. These cities were in a We shall first examine in more detail ihis network position either to bl'ock or to open commercial inter- of commercialriver-ways (see map, page401). course between the south-eastern Baltic basin and the Starting from the west, we note that the upper Orient. They acted as guardians of these sections of Vistula and its eastern confluents run close to the the highways of internationalcommerce, besides being upper Dniester and Prypei rivers (the Prypei being a important cen,tresof local trade. tributary of the Dnieper). The upper Niemen and its The beginnings oi trade be.tweenthe Baltic and tributaries give easy accessto the upper Berezina and the Black Sea, as also between the Baltic and the upper Dnieper rivers. The upper waters of the rivers Caspian Sea regions, date {rom ,time immemorial. It discharging into Lake llmen (and thence via the river appears that there was lively in'tercoursebetween these Volkhov, Lake Ladoga and the river Neva into the Gulf regions in the Scythian and the Sarmatian period of Finland) run close to the headwaters of the rivers (seventhcen,tur)r B.C. to the third cen,turyA-D.) as well Dvina,Dnieper and Volga. as during the period of the domination of the Coths in Later, in the courseof the eighteenthand nineteenth South Russia (third and fourth centuriesA.D.).1 r For an outline of the development of Baltic commerce, see E.M. Minns,Scylfirans and Greeks,Cambridge 1913; and see H. Vitots, La mer Baltique et tbs 6tats baltes, Paris 1935. M. Rostovtzeff,Iranians and Greeksin SouthRussia, Oxford For early intercourse betwilen the Baltic and South Russia, 1 400 GEORGEVERNADSKY BALTIC AND SCANDINAVIANCOUNTRTES At the end of the fourth century A.D. the Gothic Slavoniccharacter. The Dnieper becamethe chiel com- Kingdom was destroyed by the invasion of the Huns, mercial highway of the new State, offering as it did and for 'some time the former commercial highways easy access.tothe Black Sea. were blocked. After the disintegrafiono{ the empire of On the other hand, the Kiev'ian princes exerted the Huns, the expansion of the eastern Slavs in wh,at every eftort to secure the Baltic connexionsfor their later became known as EuroDeanRussia commenced trade. Vladimir I (978-1015) annexed part of the on a trargescale. region of the upper Vistula as well as oi that of its By the end of the eighth century the eastern Slavs eastern tributaries, including the city of Czerwiei had colonizedthe basinsoi the Dnieper, Don and upper (981). He also launched a campaign against the Volga, as well as the upper parts of the rivers o{ ihe LithuanianJadzwings in order to securethe upper basin south-eastern Baltic basin - the Vistula, Niemen, of the Niemen (983).lt was at this time that the city of Dvina, Velikaia and Volkhov. By this time the Poles Grodno was founded.3 Vladimir's son, Yaroslav I were holding the lower and middle parts of the Vistula (1019-1054), succeededin controlling part of what is basin (as well as the western part of the upper Vistula now Estonia,where he foundedthe city of Yuriev (later basin); theAncientPrussians and Lithuanianscontrolled re-named Dorpat by the Germans, now Est. Tartu). the country between the lower Vistula and the Niemen, Both Vladimir and Yaroslav attached great importance besides the lower and middle sections of both the to maintainingcontrol over Novgorod, Polotsk and Smo- Niemen and Dvina basins. Various Finnish tribes oc- lensk - the key ,cities controlling the connexions of cupied the te,rritory north of the Dvina as far as the the Dnieper region with the northern Baltic. Gulf of Finland,as well as the lower parts of the basins After the death of Yaroslav I, the process of dis- of the rivers Narova and Neva. integration of the Kiev State started. Russia became During the courseof the eighth and ninth centuries a loose federationof a number of teudal principalities Scandinavian traders and warriors penetrated to the each trying to control a part of the network of river river highways of Russia. The Varangian (Scandinav- routes. ian) prrincessubjugated various East Slavonic tribes Thus the princes of Halicz controlled the junction and succeededin organizingin Russiaa mighty military of the routes connecting the eastern section of the and commercialState. At first, however,the Varangians upper Vistula basin with the 'trpperpart of the Dniester had to share the control of the South Russian rivers basin, and it was precisely on this foundaiion that the wirththe Khazars,a Turkish tribe whose centreof power economic and political ascendancyof Halicz in the resied on the lower Volga. twelfth and thirteenth centuries was built. Important The flourishing state o{ Varangian commercewith trading centres in these regions were Jaroslaw and the Arabs on the one hand, and with the Byzantine PrzemySlon the river San, Lw6w on the river Peltew Greeks on the other, is proved by findings of in- (a tributary of the Bug), and Halicz city on the river numerablehoards of Arabian coins (and a number of Dniester. The commercial im,portanceof the cities of Byzantine coins) throughout the eastern Baltic region, Halicz was increasedby the fact that they controlled includ'i,ngthe island of Gottland. the overland route to Central Europe. Commercial The rapid expansion of commerce between the intercourse between Ratisbon (Regensburg) on the Varangiansand the Orient was partly a result of the Danube and Kiev on the Dnieper via Halicz was very interruption in this period of commercial ,intercourse lively in the Middte Ages, especially in the twelfth in the western Mediterranean,which was due to the century.{ Arab invasionand to the desperatestruggle taking place The principality of Volhynia, lying next to Halicz between rhe Franks and the Arabs. Finding the routes towards the north and the north-east, occupied the th,rough the western Mediterranean closed, European basin of the upper Bug on the one hand, and that of commerce with the Orient was lorced to seek ,new the upper Prypei on the other. The northern section of routes, and these were opened by Viking penetration Volhynia reachedthe Szczara,a tributary of the Niemen. into Russia.2 Drohiczyn and BrzeSi on the Bug, and Wlodzimierz on The Varangians,'being newcomers in Russia and the Lug (a tributary of the Bug) were the ,chieftrading not too numerous, soon merged with the Slavonic centresin these regions. masses.The Russian State which had centred around The principality ol Grodno on the river Szczara ii Kiev since the ninth century early assumed purely was connectedboth politically and economi'callywith ll a rl z See H. Pirenne, Medieval Cilias, Princeton 195, pp. Times), lurnal Ministerstva Narodnago Prosvieschenra(Journ. 25-55. of the National Ministry of Education), Vol. 258, t888, pp. 'Novye 'Germaniia g See A.V. Soloviev, raskopki v Grodno' (Recent 121-l5O; M.E. Shaitan, i Kiev v Xl v' (Cermany Excavations in Crodno), Zapiski Russkago Nauchnago In- and Kiev in the eleventh Century), Lelopis zanialii Istoriko- stl/u/a (Reports oi the Russian Institute oi Sciences), Xlll, Arkheosraticheskoi Komissii (Chronicle of the Work of the Belgrade 1935, pp. 69-96. Historicll-Archeographical Commission), l, 1927, pp. 3-26; a See V.O. Vasilievsky, 'Drevniaia torgovlia Kieva s A.V. Floresky, Chekhi i Vostochnye Slavione (The Czechs and Regensburgom' (Trade of Kiev with Regensburg in Ancient the Eastern Slavs), I, pp.