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Ports of trade in early medieval Europe

a
Richard Hodges
a
Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Sheffield, England
Published online: 19 May 2010.

To cite this article: Richard Hodges (1978): Ports of trade in early medieval Europe, Norwegian Archaeological Review, 11:2,
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Ports of Trade in Early Medieval Europe
RICHARD HODGES
Department of Prehistory and Archaeology. University of Sheffield, England
Based upon functional differences, the author attempts to categorize early
medieval trading settlements into four classes.
The authors of Archaeological Contribu-
tions to the Early History of Urban Com-
munities in Norway (Herteig, Liden and
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Blindheim, 1975) must be saluted for
preparing seven useful essays on four
Norwegian sites of European importance.
Their work sustains the belief that the
Norwegians are in the vanguard of medi-
eval archaeology, and especially urban
archaeology. In particular, the authors of
this book have successfully used archae-
ological and historical sources to seek ex-
planations of economic and concomitant
topographical developments. Dr. Blind-
heim's concluding paper, 'Harbour, market
centre or town', focusing on Kaupang, ex-
pands in many respects the economic points
made by Dr. Herteig in his paper on Bor-
gund in Sunnmore as well as those made
by Dr. Liden in interpreting the origins of
Oslo. It is with a genuine sense of stimula-
tion that I should like to discuss briefly
some of Dr. Blindheim's concluding re-
marks, partly in the light of some recent
reconsideration of Hamwih, Saxon South-
ampton — a comparable and contemporary
site of Kaupang.
Dr. Blindheim refers to Professor Karl
Polanyi's work, and, in particular, to his
important designations of trading centres
including the port of trade (Polanyi, 1957,
1963; Dalton, 1975). Polanyi is a little
more precise about ports of trade than Dr.
Blindheim (1975, p. 171), quoting the his-
torian K. Lunden (1972). For, besides a
site that offers security to the foreign
N.A.R., Vol. 11, No. 2, 1978
trader, facilities of anchorage and debar-
kation, storage, the benefit of judicial
authorities, and agreement on the goods
to be traded, as Dr. Blindheim says (cf.
Polanyi, 1975, p. 115), Polanyi defines a
port of trade as 'often a neutrality device,
a derivative of silent trade . . . and of the
neutralized coastal town' (1963, p. 30).
Moreover, it should be noted that Polanyi
himself discussed Hedeby, Dorestad and
Birka as possible ports of trade (1963, p.
34). This being so, it seems possible to
propose four classes of trading settlement
extant in the early medieval period, each
differing slightly from one another in
their functions, yet each with some of the
characteristics which Polanyi defined.
Each, we may note in parenthesis, is the
forerunner of the medieval market, al-
though whether there is a direct link or
not is another question, and one far more
controversial.
The first class is the Dorestad-Hedeby
type. The second is the Kaupang-Hamwih
type. The third is the inland type of which
Verdun in this period is perhaps the best
example. The fourth is the type recently
described by K. Odner, where trading took
place actually on boats or rafts in an Ice-
landic estuary (1972, 645)..
The Dorestad-Hedeby type clearly per-
forms entrepot functions. In effect these
settlements are locational examples of
what Renfrew has referred to as 'middle-
man trading' (1975, p. 43), for they were
settlements that seem to have been intrin-
 98 Richard Hodges
sic to the historic Frisian trade between the
heartland of the Carolingian empire and
Scandinavia. Wine was one important
merchandise taken northwards, and furs,
in particular, were brought south (Jellema,
1955). It seems improbable that the trade
was monopolized by the Frisians, yet they
probably handled a large part of it. Dore-
stad was an excellent base for the Rhenish
trade, and Hedeby for the trade in the
Baltic. These settlements were doubtless
also operating on a local level and this,
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especially in the case of Hedeby, compli-
cates our definition. Professor van Es has
observed an agrarian pattern to some of
the quarters at Dorestad (1969; Blindheim,
1975, p. 159), while others have drawn
attention to the role of the Danish kings in
encouraging commerce at Hedeby (Schle-
dermann, 1967; Blindheim, 1975, p. 160;
Jones, 1968, pp. 174-181). Despite the
royal activity at Hedeby, which suggests
some similarities to the Kaupang-Hamwih
class of settlement discussed below, it was
as an entrepot for alien merchants that it
flourished. This contention is sustained at
both sites by the mass of imported goods
from all parts of the settlement. Polanyi's
definition of a port of trade as a neutral
site, an extension of the silent trade, seems
to admirably fit the functions of the Dore-
stad and Hedeby settlements. It was a
feature of which Polanyi himself was
aware. Their neutrality when related to
the activities of the Frisians was a major
factor, and one for the most part recog-
nized by the Merovingians and Caroling-
ians, and possibly for a short time by the
Viking marauders in the early ninth
century. " :
There is a subtle distinction between the
former class and the Kaupang-Hamwih
type of settlement, one which, it may be
contended, Polanyi did not entirely grasp.
In his paper on ports of trade he claims
Birka to be an example like Dorestad and
Hedeby (1963, p. 34). Birka, however,
clearly performs the same functions as
Kaupang and Hamwih, and many more
settlements of this type operating at this
time. If we take Hamwih as an example,
we can illustrate this point. There is con-
siderable evidence to suggest that all long-
distance trading was controlled either by
the Saxon kings or the church in Middle
Saxon England (Biddle, 1976, p. 114). In
the case of Hamwih a charter reference
to a ninth-century villa regalis (Biddle,
1976, n. 114) and the evidence of a mint
there (Metcalf, 1974, pp. 207-9; Dolley,
1970) strongly suggests that this trading
settlement was administered by the West
Saxon kings. The celebrated letter from
Charlemagne to Off a (Whitelock, 1955,
pp. 781-2) points to a similarly adminis-
tered trade in Carolingia. We may postu-
late, therefore, with some documentary
basis (Ganshof, 1957), that many of the
traders who landed at Hamwih were ne-
godatores directly from the Continental
courts in northern France. A detailed study
of the considerable imported ceramic as-
semblage indicates that Frisian activity at
Hamwih was minimal (Hodges, 1977a;
Hodges, 1977b), that these particular
'middlemen' sought trade elsewhere in
regions where there was less competition.
This Hamwih trade existed in all proba-
bility as an expression of the long-distance
trading requirements of the West Saxon
kingdom, and perhaps of the kingdoms like
Mercia further inland (cf. Metcalf, 1972).
It reflects the necessity of importing luxu-
ries, mainly for prestigious or idealogical
reasons, on both sides of the English Chan-
nel, although characteristic of such trade
were the utilitarian items, such as lava
quernstones, which were also exchanged.
Moreover, we may discern an element of
neutrality in that the laws of King Ina and
 Ports of Trade in Early Medieval Europe
King Alfred attempted to dissuade aliens
from travelling inland (e.g. Whitelock,
1955, pp. 366-7). From all points of view
an exchange at a semi-neutral site on the
coast was safest. It would also have bene-
fited local craftsmen, possibly patronized
by the court specifically to operate at
Hamwih when there were traders in resi-
dence (perhaps in the winter months when
sailing was hazardous). Independent mer-
chants, pedlars and craftsmen may also
have been operating in Middle Saxon
England, but we have no information on
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them.
Thus, while there are similarities to the
former sites, the functions are slightly dif-
ferent. Hamwih, Kaupang, Birka, Rouen
and Quentovic, among the numerous sites
of this kind in the great period of interna-
tional trading of the eighth and early ninth
centuries, were all at the end of alien
traderoutes and at the beginning of inland
routeways (cf. Hodges, 1975). Often they
reflect trade between 'partners', as de-
monstrated by Charlemagne's letter to
Offa. This was probably a formal, if ir-
regular, trade (cf. Hodges 1977b). 'Middle-
men' as well as native traders were of
course important to the Scandinavian
settlements of this kind, as the range of
evidence from Birka and its cemeteries
suggests. Indeed, we may further suggest
that Birka, located on the fringe of the
rich southern Swedish lakeland plain, is a
classic example of this second class. A site
at the end of an alien long-distance trade-
route, a site where alien traders were prob-
ably in temporary residence and to which
native traders returned, and a site with a
fortified citadel, indicating the presence
of some power, in all likelihood a chief-
tain or king. It was a site, possibly suc-
ceeding neighbouring Helgo, important
for the region (cf. Holmqvist, 1975).
In the early medieval period what may
99
be termed a subclass are the monastic
settlements which would appear to have
operated on a smaller scale, but within a
similar economic framework. These settle-
ments located on coastlines, we may sug-
gest, functioned within an ecclesiastical
network as hierarchical and complex as
the secular one. Several sixth to seventh
century examples are evident in western
Britain and Ireland, in particular Nen-
drum on Strangford Lough in Ulster
(Jope, 1966, pp. 296-298) and Tintagel
in Cornwall (Burrow, 1973). Professor
Cramp's excavations at Wearmouth and
Jarrow have revealed later Saxon exam-
ples (1969). The range of imported cera-
mics, metalwork and coins of early medi-
eval date found variously on Luce Sands,
near Luce Abbey in south-west Scotland
suggests a site of this subclass, although it
may in fact be a settlement of the second
class proper (cf. Laing, 1975, p. 39).
The third class of site, defined by
Polanyi as a quasi-port of trade, is the
inland trading centre (Polanyi, 1963, p.
31). He suggested that these were located
on 'the borders of two ecological regions,
such as highland and plain, but particular-
ly on the border of the desert'; 'the caravan
cities of Palmyra and Petra, Karakorum,
Ispahan and Kandahar may be said to
have fallen into this class' (Polanyi, 1963,
p. 31). In fact, this class raises the question
of the economic role of caravanserais. It is
a class of settlement which in its simplest
form may have Bronze Age origins in
northern Europe (cf. Bradley and Ellison,
1976), which is found in many preurban
contexts (Smith, 1974, p. 192-3), and which
is certainly evident in early medieval Eu-
rope. Exactly how each functioned ad-
ministratively has not been clarified, and
we may doubt that Polanyi fully appre-
ciated this aspect. His examples are all on
important traderoutes used by merchants
 100 Richard Hodges
who came from or were sponsored by im-
perial powers. Besides being permanent
settlements of various sizes, they might
also be said to be staging posts, as well as
centres of regional trade.
Verdun in northern France is perhaps
the best-documented example of this class
in the early medieval period, although
there is no archaeological evidence to sub-
stantiate the ecclesiastical references to the
trading activity there (Dollinger-Leonard,
1958, pp. 210-214; Vercauteren, 1961, pp.
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295-6). It lies on a river-crossing where
two ecological zones meet. It was located
on an important Roman routeway that led
across northern France. The trading seems
to have been held directly outside the bish-
op's palace and to have been primarily
concerned with slaves, and eunuchs in par-
ticular. Verdun was in a sense a staging
post on the traderoute that led from the
Arabic south to the centres of northern
civilization, Aachen amd Cologne. We
may suspect that sites like these associated
with major ecclesiastical settlements were
to be found in most parts of Christian Euro-
pe at this time. Inland 'royal' sites may, in
similar ecological locations, have also
functioned in this way. The church and the
'royalty' were, after all, the principal eco-
nomic forces of this essentially pre-market
society. The lack of archaeological evi-
dence, however, roughly indicates the
small scale of these settlements in contrast
to the first and second classes discussed
above, and also implies very limited re-
gional trading before the tenth century.
It was perhaps only as structurally insub-
stantial periodic markets, of a kind well
documented in Africa (cf. Hodder, 1971),
that these settlements operated within a
regional framework (cf. Latouche, 1967,
pp. 158-160).
Odner has drawn attention to a fourth
class of port of trade, one that operated in
mid-fjord or -estuary. His model for Ice-
land is presumably drawn from literary
sources, but in view of large groups of
finds from certain rivermouths in England,
such as the rivers Witham and Thames,
we may wonder if there is also archae-
ological evidence for this kind of port of
trade. Odner (1972, p. 645) writes that the
ships 'anchored in the river estuaries, and
the trade was carried out from there. The
trade was administered by chieftains, who
imposed set prices on the merchandise, and
high-handedly expelled the merchants if
they did not comply with the regulations.
This type of trade was of an archaic char-
acter, institutionally reminiscent, on a
small scale, of the port of trade'.
Polanyi's definition is often far from
clear, largely because he was concerned
with ports .of trade as a global presence
(1963, p. 30). Yet Polanyi's work has
proved valuable because he stressed regu-
larities that often emphasize the mechanics
of economies. Further definition is certain-
ly required, and much the best informa-
tion may come from the combined and
complementary fields of history and ar-
chaeology. It is work of the kind presented
in these Norwegian essays that will facil-
itate this end.
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