Trade in the Viking Age

Although the Vikings today have a reputation for being violent raiders and conquerors, they were also peaceful traders in their time. Many individuals combined activities, even switching in the course of their voyages, trading or raiding depending on the circumstance. Their advances in shipbuilding, so important in their success in warfare, also brought success in commerce, allowing them to venture further and further from Scandinavia.

In doing so, many economic historians speak of the Vikings as developing the northern trade arc. This would eventually stretch from Dublin to the mouth of the Volga River, where it flows into the Caspian Sea, and the Black Sea, leading to Constantinople. The Vikings were the primary merchants along this wide arc, supplying markets with Scandinavian goods, such as fur, iron, and walrus tusks in exchange for tremendous wealth and plenty of exotic goods. They also played a major role in the slave trade of the time. Overall, their trading activities were extensive and played an extremely important role in many parts of the medieval work. They worked to expand and even establish the trade routes that were vital in rebuilding the economy of Europe during the Viking Age.

This article provides a comprehensive overview of Viking trade history, intended as a backgrounder for Odyssey Traveller’s Scandinavia Guided Tour for mature-aged and senior travellers, during which we uncover a Viking past in the Scandinavian peninsula. Travelling from our centrally located hotel, we catch a glimpse of the world’s biggest fjords and some fabulous scenery on a journey through the countries of Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

Much of the information in this article is drawn from Kenneth W. Harl’s The Vikings and Cat Jarman’s River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Road.

Economic Prosperity in Europe: The Foundation for Viking Trade  

Viking raids and trade could not have occurred without general prosperity in Western Europe. Following the collapse of the Roman Empire, the European economy had reduced significantly, stagnating for 200 years. Then, in what is known as the long 8^th century (675 – 840), the region finally experienced a period of great economic recovery. Western Europe, in particular, saw significant developments in trade and commerce, and the development of towns and monasteries as economic centres. When the Vikings began to attack the region in 790, they were thus able to travel a series of well-established trade routes to hit kingdoms in England and the Carolingian Empire.

Several forces drove the economic development and prosperity. By the mid-7th century, a certain amount of political order had been imposed in Western Europe. The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had been simplified into Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, and East Anglia, and Western Europe had been unified by the Frankish kings—first the Merovingians, then the Carolingians. This political stability was important for expansion of trade routes and commerce to proceed in long 8th century. It also allowed for a Christian European standard currency to be used in sophisticated transactions in towns and cities.

The Frisians further played an important intermediary role in aiding economic development. Starting from 675, they emerged as the major merchants in the North Sea and beyond. They depended on hulks and cogs – cargo vessels that were capable of moving bulk goods and large amounts of people. The Frisians moved timber, slaves, furs, and Arctic products from Scandinavia into Western Europe and brought back ceramics, wine, and weapons from the Carolingian Empire. It was the Frisians’ well-established trade routes that the Vikings would follow some one hundred years later.

These trade routes were centred on the Frisian city of Dorestad, which had emerged as the most important market town in Western Europe. Standing at the base of the Rhine River system, it was linked to Cologne, the largest city north of the alps in the Middle Ages until the 12^th century. From Cologne, goods then moved across the alps to Venice, the prime port for export into the Mediterranean, Byzantine, and Islamic worlds. Dorestad also had trading partners in Quentovic, near modern Boulogne, and Hamwic (Southampton). In Scandinavia, the trade routes helped stimulate the development of other market towns, such as Hedeby.

The Islamic world was also a major driving force behind economic development. Scandinavia and Christian Western Europe were economically quite undeveloped in comparison to the Mediterranean world, the former heartland of the Roman Empire, the southern and eastern portions of which were now part of the Islamic world.  The cities of the Islamic world, which included Baghdad, the caravan centres of Iran, and the cities of Central Asia, as well as Cairo, Damascus, Tunis, and Cordoba, had an enormous appetite for labour, consumables, and raw materials. Slaves, in particular, were a prime commodity. This was all fed by European markets.

Therefore, when the Vikings launched out their raids, they found in place a well-established network of trade routes and markets all over Europe and beyond. By 840, through the use of their superior ships, which could move up rivers and be carried from portage to portage, they had successfully captured the trade.

The Viking Trade

Significant Viking trade routes extended both eastwards and westwards from Scandinavia. The Scandinavians began to move profitable trade routes eastwards into Russia from as early as 750. Their two main trade routes moved down the Dnieper River to the Black Sea and down the Volga River to the Caspian Sea. These would become major trade routes in the Middle Ages, along which the Rus, as these Vikings came to be known, established trade centres and towns that would eventually become future Russian cities, such as Novgorod and Kiev. Through middle men – such as the Turkmen Khans, the Bulgars, and the Khazars –  the Rus were then connected further eastwards to Constantinople, Jerusalem, Baghdad, and the end of the Silk Road.

The Vikings traded south furs, timbers, iron, amber, soapstone, whetstones, and Frankish swords, acquiring in return large amounts of Arabic silver coins, fabrics, silk, fruit, wine, furnished goods, aromatic spices, and scales. Historical sources reveal, however, that the most extensive trade along these eastern routes was in slaves. The Vikings would capture slaves during their raids and after battles. Most were obtained from the Slavic tribes that had moved into central Europe, filling gaps in the slave market that had dried up in Western Europe due to both economic and religious factors.

Slaves yielded the highest return on any product exported from either Scandinavia or Western Europe to the Islamic world. There was a huge demand for labourers on plantations, girls to populate harems, and people in general to sustain the large cities of the Islamic world. The huge demand for slaves can be partly explained by recovery from a demographic collapse in the Islamic and Carolingian empires that had started in the mid-6th century. At that time, a plague had swept across Europe and the Middle East that was probably on the same order of magnitude as the Black Death in the 14th century.

The Scandinavian Vikings also pioneered a western extension of the northern arc, terminating in the cities of York in England and Dublin in Ireland. In addition to the international traders, many Viking craftsmen also settled there. In their workshops, they produced pottery, glass beads, tableware, cups, drinking glasses, leather goods, bone and antler combs, jewellery, and cloth. Blacksmiths and armour makers, meanwhile, produced swords, axes, and armour.

Dublin, in particular, became the most important market for the export of slaves from Western Europe, again, destined for the Islamic world. By one estimate, somewhere between one-half and two-thirds of all the slaves arriving in the Islamic world for a period of 250 years were sold by Scandinavian merchants.

The Vikings also traded and settled further down the coasts of Europe, in places such as Normandy in France and southern Italy. They also settled the Orkneys, Shetland, Hebrides, Sicily and Isle of Man, and went as far as Greenland and Newfoundland in the New World. Generally, those from Sweden traded eastwards, while the Norwegians and the Danes went to Ireland, Scotland, England, and France.

Trade was most usually accomplished by the direct exchange of one type of trade goods for another (known as barter). Often the same types of easily measured commodities were exchanged, such as textiles, beads, and furs. However, the most widespread form of exchange appears to have been bullion, primarily precious metals such as gold and silver due to their durability.

Viking Trading Towns

Viking trade also led to the development of market towns, concentrations of populations not seen before in Scandinavian history. Indeed, before the Viking Age, there were no real proper towns in Scandinavia, in which a large permanent population made a living fashioning and selling a variety of non-agricultural goods. Rather, people tended to live and work in small farming or fishing villages. Even throughout the more civilised parts of Europe, towns were relatively rare.

As the Vikings began raiding and trading into Europe and Russia during the 8th and 9th centuries, the first towns started to develop as trading centres established by local kings. They were designed to ensure traders and their valuable goods were safe, so that the kings could tax the traders’ goods for the use of land and protection.

At first, they appeared as proto-urban trading sites, always near water, either a river or sea. There was a string of these around the Baltic Sea, especially on the northern coast of what is now Germany and Denmark, and along the coast of modern Poland. These were places where objects could be traded and where craft activities sprang up. As convenient stopping places, traders could sell their goods here, or get hold of the provisions needed for the onward journey; stop to make repairs to their ship; or maybe even recruit new members for their crew.

From these, towns went on to develop more or less simultaneously across the Viking world along main trading routes. It was the professional craftsmen and traders who lived in the Viking towns, with the economies dominated by production and trade. Both of these occurred on a substantial scale. Talented blacksmiths, bronze casters, bead makers, glassblowers, jewellers, potters, leatherworkers, weavers, dyers, and more were all attracted to the towns. Farms outside of the towns meanwhile produced the food the townspeople ate and the raw materials urban craftsmen relied upon.

Famous Viking Towns: Birka, Hedeby and Kaupang

Three Scandinavian Viking trading towns –Kaupang, Birka and Hedeby – are extremely well known, both from archaeology and historical sources. In Viking times, they all had several similarities, including a resident population of more than 1,000 people, specialised areas for manufacturing, and impressive numbers of imported goods. This was a result of wealth coming into these towns from commerce, plunder, and the slave trade. These towns were also home to foreigners, including Frisians, English, Saxons, and so on. Plus, they were host to the first Christian missionaries, starting in the 9th century with Saint Anskar (801–865). Indeed, it is through these towns that Christianity would be transmitted to the northern peoples.

These towns played an economic role in Scandinavia that was out of proportion to their size. As the Scandinavians came into contacts with other civilisations, they learnt all sorts of new skills and made all kinds of new products to make money in a fashion never done before. The artistic style of the Middle East for example inspired new jewellery styles, and the first Scandinavian coins were minted here.

Given their economic importance, these towns became targets for aspiring Scandinavian kings. In fact, the three classic Scandinavian monarchies that would emerge at the end of the 10^th century were all cantered on one of these towns.

The Norwegian kingdom was based on Kaupang. The town was established around 800. Its location is no coincidence. The western side of the fjord forms the chief sailing route along the coast, while just a few kilometres east of the town lies the mouth of the River Lågen, the main route inland. This coastal zone is among the most fertile regions in the whole of Norway. Further inland, you could reach areas that were big producers of trading goods important for export, like soapstone, minerals for whetstones, and iron.

Birka, meanwhile, was the capital of the first Swedish kings. Located on a small island in Lake Mälaren, the town could be reached by boat from the Baltic Sea. It emerged around 750 as an important site linking inland places like Uppsala with the vast trading networks that could be reached across the Baltic both to the east and west. It also appears to have been supported by a considerable hinterland beyond the lake, with plenty of opportunities for agriculture, the collection of raw materials and the exploitation of wild game, especially animals from which furs could be produced and exported.

Finally, for the Danish kings, Hedeby was the largest and most important trading centre. Located along the southern border of the Danish kingdom, in what is now Germany, the town controlled both the north-south trade routes between Europe and Scandinavia and the east-west routes between the Baltic and the North Seas. Fortifications around the town, erected in the 10^th century to withstand numerous assaults, speaks to its economic importance and political significance. Inside the fortifications, merchants and craftsmen based themselves on a network of streets, operating under the protection and control of the king.

Scandinavia Viking Tour

During Odyssey Traveller 13-day tour in Scandinavia, we explore Denmark’s, Sweden’s’ and Norway’s ancient Viking heritage, World Heritage Sites, and charming Nordic cities, with some truly spectacular scenery along the way.

What these Scandinavian countries share in common is their natural beauty, and vibrant, unforgettable cultures. In low-lying Denmark, we visit meticulously maintained urban centres, including the vibrant capital of Copenhagen. We then continue our sightseeing tour and adventure in Sweden and its capital, Stockholm, now the financial capital of the region. Finally, after Sweden, we travel to Norway, famous for its breath-taking Norwegian coastal voyage favoured by tourists. Here, we journey over magnificent mountains and skirt picturesque fjords of Norway to reach Bergen.

Our Scandinavian tour also visits the Christiansborg Palace (outside visit), housing the Danish Parliament; the Vasa Museum; Vigeland Sculpture Park; and the old canal area, Nyhavn, with its picturesque houses and vessels and beautiful landscapes. This and more are all waiting to be explored on one of Odyssey’s small group tours of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Designed for the senior traveller, and led by experienced, and enthusiastic likeminded people.

We also explore Viking history during our tours in the lands of Viking settlements, including our:

• Discover Greenland Small Group Tour (5 days)
• Faroe Islands Small Group Tour (5 days)
• Iceland Cultural and Wilderness Small Group tour (17 days)
• Vikings in Britain Small Group Tour (28 days)

Odyssey Traveller has been serving global travellers since 1983 with educational tours of the history, culture, and architecture of our destinations designed for mature and senior travellers. We specialise in offering small group tours partnering with a local tour guide at each destination to provide a relaxed and comfortable pace and atmosphere that sets us apart from larger tour groups. Tours consist of small groups of between 6 and 12 people and are cost inclusive of all entrances, tipping and majority of meals. For more information, click here, and head to this page to make a booking.