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dismissive of most of what he saw, commenting that the people of Schleswig customarily drowned their surplus children as a means of saving expense, and that their diet was mainly fish. He is more polite about other centres, noting that Mainz had coins that had been minted in Samarkand only 50 years before. He also mentions that the same city had spices from the far East, including pepper, ginger, cloves, spikenard, costmary and galingale. However, he mentions the presence of these products because they are exceptional, not because they are part of normal trade.8
Thus, what little trade that did survive the collapse of Rome was at first haphazardly carried on by groups of travelling merchants who catered for the rich by selling them luxuries or who exploited the poor with high prices during famines.
TRADE AND TOWNS
Trade revival was also coincident with and dependent upon the recommencement of large scale town dwelling.
When urban life began again it started most obviously in Italy and Flanders, taking its momentum from what was happening in these two centres.
The Crusades gave the growth of towns and trade further impetus: Latin merchant colonies were established all over the Levant, to be followed by the Venetians, the Genoese and the Pisans.
City walls were extended by 14 major burgs in France and Germany, including Bourges, Grenoble, Utrecht and Strasbourg, during the twelfth century, as compared to eight during the eleventh century and three during the tenth century. In Italy there was virtually no expansion during the period 1000-1050; increasing expansion during the latter part of the eleventh century; and an expansion rate c.150 per cent greater during the twelfth century.9
Although merchants often continued to be itinerant, travelling to fairs and markets, the new towns provided a useful distribution point for their goods. In some cases, however, relatively unsettled areas became the major focus of trade. Thus, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the travelling trade fixed on the fairs of Champagne.10
Yet some markets and fairs continued throughout the Dark Ages. There are indications of foreign trade taking place in Narbonne in 589 and in Spain in 693.11 The market at St Denis near Paris may date from c.635. In Germany, there are indications of 29 markets in the eighth century.12
Specific mentions of markets and fairs are, however, rare until the Carolingian period, when they become numerous.13
Thus, the growth of marketing is one of chaos and spontaneous growth combined with various local factors.
But the regular growth in large markets and fairs is really a phenomenon of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, coinciding with expansion towards the East. Thus, a new fair known as the Lendit fair emerges near Paris in the eleventh century. The first Parisian fair was established by the abbey of St Denis - lasting from the second Wednesday in June until St John's Eve - and a second fair was established after 1109 by Louis VI. This latter one lasted for three days per occasion, until 1213 when it merged with the original fair.14
Another great regional circuit of fairs were those of Champagne, which were six fairs held in four towns. They are pre-twelfth century in origin but are only recorded from 1114 on. All the regions of France sent merchants there as did northern and central Italy, Flanders, Hainault, Brabant, Spain, England, Germany, Switzerland and Savoy. Goods included cloths and woollens from northern France, silk from Lucca, leather from Spain, Pisa, Africa and Provence, furs from Germany, linens from Champagne and Germany, and Italian trade in the form of spices, wax, sugar, alum lacquer and dye woods. There are also several mentions of cotton, grains, wine and horses.15
All of this adds up to a marketing revolution, compared to the previous dearth of reliable and varied produce. The depth and nature of this change in European trade wrought by the Crusades is clearly demonstrated in archeological remains, such as the Dark Age Sutton Hoo treasure trove.
This seventh century burial site of an Anglo Saxon chieftain in East Anglia contains loot from Byzantium in the form of small silver bowls and a Roman-style bowl. These objects seem to have been gathered as casual plunder, or possibly through contact with evangelising Christians. Silver spoons and twelve silver bowls may well indicate a temporary or incipient conversion of the Anglo Saxon war lord who owned the materials.
The same image of casual gathering of items applies to records of the Vikings who travelled the waterways of Europe two centuries later, right up until the First Crusade.
The eleventh century Norwegian Viking king, Harald Hardrada, for example, went to Byzantium from Norway initially on a journey to escape persecution, and subsequently for adventure. His journey took about 12 years, from 1030 to 1043, and the goods he brought back were plunder rather than trade. His biographer particularly mentions gold as well as valuable treasure of all kinds.16
As well, although Harald encountered Saracens, he did not settle amongst them, and as a war chief of the Byzantines, his main interest in them was conquest rather than exchange.
The Crusades, in contrast to Harald's voyage, happened relatively quickly and directly: Stephen of Blois made the journey twice in three years.
And after the Crusade, trade and towns expanded simultaneously to change forever the social and physical landscape of Europe.
If at first, the Crusaders were interested mainly in reaching their goal of Jerusalem, settlement and exchange of goods soon loomed large on their minds.
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