The Early Hanses 17
of the Baltic Region into the Christian occidental world not as a singular
process, but as part of a European expansion that included Central Eastern
Europe, the Iberian Peninsula and the British Isles.8 The most comprehensive
approach of the last few years characterizes the process as the integration of
the peripheral Baltic Region into a “Catholic world system,” in the sense of
Braudel and Wallerstein.9
The Baltic Region: From the Turn of the First Millennium to the
Beginning of the Twelfth Century
As early as Roman times, both metals and slaves from the forests of north-
ern and northeastern Europe were highly sought after in both southern and
western Europe. As time went on, the demand for these goods grew steadily,
both in the Frankish Empire and in the Muslim territories surrounding the
Mediterranean. In the Carolingian period, an additional demand for northern
furs developed as well. According to archeological sources, the direct trade
routes of Baltic merchants shifted during the late ninth century, and began to
pass through the Russian river system to Byzantium and from there into the
Caliphate.
However, the Scandinavians (Vikings) did not initiate the shift; instead, the
trade route’s foundation had been laid by the Arabs and Khazars. Nevertheless,
a Scandinavian slave trade directed towards the southeast, which lasted for
about a century, facilitated the arrival of an estimated 50–100 million Dirhem
(Arabic silver coins) in the Baltic Region.10 These Dirhem served as the cur-
rency in a ‘weight-money’ economy that extended from Iceland and Ireland
in the west to Scandinavia, the Baltic States, and well into Russia in the east.
Furthermore, this economy, by virtue of the Dirhem, was at least temporar-
ily tied to the currency relations of the Caliphate. With the Dirhem as a key
8 This approach was already basis for the Reichenau lectures 1970–1972; see Walter
Schlesinger, ed., Die deutsche Ostsiedlung des Mittelalters als Problem der europäischen
Geschichte, Vorträge und Forschungen, vol. 18 (Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbecke-Verlag, 1975);
Charles Higounet, Die Deutsche Ostsiedlung im Mittelalter (Berlin: Siedler, 1986); French
edition, Les Allemands en Europe centrale et orientale au Moyen Âge (Paris: Aubier, 1989).
9 Blomkvist, Discovery, 35–95.
10 Ralf Wiechmann, “Der Wandel des Währungssystems bei den Elb- und Ostseeslawen. Zur
ältesten Münzprägung in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,” in Geld und Kredit in der Geschichte
Norddeutschlands, ed. Klaus-Joachim Lorenzen-Schmidt, Studien zur Wirtschafts- und
Sozialgeschichte Schleswig-Holsteins, Bd. 43 (Neumünster: Wachholtz-Verlag, 2006),
43–68, 44.