Wide extent of trading expeditions—Commercial activity of the people—Fairs—Immunity of trading ships from capture—Classification and name of merchant vessels—Trade a high calling—Kings as traders—Laws regulating trade—The earliest medium of exchange—Method of reckoning—Weights and measures—Arabic and other coins and objects—Insurance.

The people of the North were, from very early times, great traders, and as such undertook long voyages, as is seen from the finds of the earlier iron age, and from many accounts in the Sagas; this ancient trait in their character is still seen in their descendants.

Their trading expeditions extended far south through the present Russia, to the Black Sea, the Tigris and Euphrates, and as far east as Samarcand; while with their ships they traded to the seas of Western Europe and into the Mediterranean.

“ThÓrÓlf had a large seagoing ship; in every way it was most carefully built, and painted nearly all over above the water-line; it had a sail with blue and red stripes, and all the rigging was very elaborate. This he made ready, and ordered his men-servants to go with it; he had put on board dried fish, skins, tallow, gray fur and other furs, which he had from the mountains; all this was of much value. He sent it westward to England to buy cloth (woollen) and other goods he needed. They went southward along the coast, and then out to sea; when they arrived in England they found a good market, loaded the ship with wheat and honey, wine and cloth, and returned in the autumn with fair winds” (Egil’s Saga).

“From England (London) Gunnlaug sailed with some traders to Dublin. King Sigtrygg Silk-beard, son of Olaf Kvaran and Queen KormlÖd then ruled in Ireland”^[167] (Gunnlaug Ormstunga, c. 8).

“In the spring, after the JÓmsviking battle, the Jarl summoned before him many chiefs east in the country. Thither also came at the Jarl’s summons the brothers JÓstein and KarlshÖfud, sons of Eirik of Ofrustad. There was also a man, by name of ThÓrir Klakka, a great friend of the Jarl. He was accustomed to go on Viking expeditions in the summer, but sometimes he went on trading journeys, and therefore he knew many countries” (Olaf Tryggvason, c. 51 (Heimskringla)).

“Some time after King Sverrir held a Thing in BjÖrgyn (Bergen) and spoke: ‘We thank all English men who bring hither wheat and honey, flour or cloth, for coming; we thank also all men who bring hither linen, wax or kettles. We will also name those who have come from the Orkneys, Hjaltland, Faroes, Iceland, and all who bring into this country things useful for it’” (Fornmanna SÖgur, vii.).

He goes on to say that the Germans coming there bring wine and teach men to be drunkards.

“King Ólaf had proclaimed the Christian law in Vikin, in the same manner as in the northern part of the country; and it progressed rapidly, for the people of Vikin were much better acquainted with Christian customs than the men in the north, for both in winter and summer there were many Danish and Saxon traders. The men of Vikin also went much on trading journeys to England and Saxland, or FlÆmingjaland (Flamland, Flandres) or Denmark; but some went on Viking expeditions, and stayed during winter in Christian lands” (St. Olaf, c. 62).

There were regular places where fairs were held for the barter of wares without fear of molestation, at which the same peace reigned as at the Thing or temple, their inviolability apparently being acknowledged by all. Booths were built in these places, to which native and foreign merchants came, and goods—furs, skins, costly cloths, garments, grain, slaves, &c., &c.—were sold or exchanged.

“Melkorka’s son Olaf sailed to Ireland, and, as he was about to land, his headman, Örn, said: ‘I do not think we shall meet with a good reception here, for this is far off from harbours and those trading-places where foreigners have peace’” (LaxdÆla, c. 21).

“Next summer ThrÁnd went with trading men south to Denmark, and reached Haleyri in the summer. There were very many people gathered, and it is said that thither come more people than to any other place in NordrlÖnd (the northern lands) while the fair lasts. At that time King Harald Gormsson, called BlÁtÖnn (blue tooth), ruled Denmark. King Harald was at Haleyri in the summer, and many men with him. Two of the king’s hirdmen who were there with him are mentioned; one was called Sigurd, the other HÁrek. These brothers always went round the town, and wanted to buy the best and largest gold ring they could get. They entered a booth which was very finely arranged; a man sitting there received them well, and asked what they wished to buy. They said they wanted to buy a large and good gold ring. He answered there was a good choice of them. They asked for his name, and he called himself HÓlmgeir Audgi (the wealthy). He set forth his costly things, and showed them a heavy gold ring which was very costly, and valued at so high a price that they did not know whether they could get so much silver at once as he wanted, and asked him to delay it till next morning, to which he assented.

“The king and others perceived that silver had been stolen from them, so the king issued a proclamation that no ships were to sail as long as matters stood thus. This seemed to many a great disadvantage, as it was, to stay there longer than the fair lasted. Then the Norwegians had a meeting among themselves to take counsel. ThrÁnd was at the meeting, and said: ‘The men here are very helpless.’ They asked: ‘Dost thou know a plan?’ ‘Certainly I do,’ he said. ‘Then give us thy advice,’ they said. ‘I will not do that gratuitously.’ They asked what he demanded, and he answered: ‘Every one of you shall give me one eyrir of silver.’ They said that was a great deal, but it was agreed that every man there should give him half an eyrir at once, and the other half if he was successful. The next day the king had a Thing, and said that the men should never go thence until this theft was discovered. Then a young man with long red hair, freckly and rather ugly of face, began to speak, and said: ‘The people here are rather helpless.’ The advice-givers of the king asked what advice he had to give. He answered: ‘It is my advice that every man here present give as much silver as the king demands, and when that is put into one place, then pay the loss of him who has suffered, and let the king have the rest as a gift of honour. I know that he will use well what he gets; let not people stay here weatherbound, such a multitude as here is assembled, to such a great disadvantage.’ The assembled quickly accepted this, and said they would willingly give silver to honour the king rather than stay there to their disadvantage. This plan was adopted, and the silver collected” (FÆreyinga Saga, c. 3).

The trading ships, with very few exceptions, were free from the attacks of the Vikings, as plundering a merchant vessel at sea seems to have been considered unmanly. They were unlike the war vessels which we have described, and the general name given to these Kaup-skip (trading ships) shows that the distinction was easily recognised. They were neither ornamented with dragons nor with shields, and the war pennant was missing.

We find them mentioned under their different names—viz., KnÖrr, Kugg, Byrding (ship of burden), Vistabyrding (provision ships), and Haf-skip (deep-sea ship); there were also smaller or less important ones, among them even ferry-boats. Byrdings (ships of burden), the real cargo-carrying vessels, are frequently mentioned.

“One day when Ásmund was rowing through a Sound, a byrding sailed towards them; it was easily recognised, for it was painted on the bows with white and red; the sail was striped” (St. Olaf, 132).

Trade was considered a high calling. Even the sons of kings did not despise it; Harald Fairhair’s son BjÖrn was a great Farman (seafarer) and Kaupman (trader, merchant).

“King Harald’s son, BjÖrn, ruled over Vestfold, and resided chiefly in TÚnsberg, but seldom engaged in warfare. To TÚnsberg came many traders, both from around Vikin and from the country to the north, from the south from Denmark and Saxland. King BjÖrn also had trading-ships sailing to various countries, and thus procured himself precious things, and other goods which he needed. His brothers called him trading-man, or faring-man. BjÖrn was wise and quiet, and was thought likewise to be a good chief” (Fornmanna SÖgur, vol. i.).

Even kings sometimes entered into partnership with traders.

Ingimund, who had fought on the side of Harald Fairhair, but who had settled in Iceland, came to Norway.

“Gudleik Gerski (of Gardariki) was a native of Agdir; he was a great and rich trader and seafarer, who went on trading journeys to various countries; he often went to Gardariki, and therefore was called Gudleik Gerski. One spring he prepared his ship, as he wanted to go to Gardariki in the summer. King Olaf sent him word that he wished to see him. When Gudleik came, the king said he wished to enter into partnership with him, and asked him to buy for him costly things that were rare in Norway. Gudleik promised to do as he wished.... In the summer Gudleik went to HÓlmgard, and there bought excellent pell (costly cloth), which he intended for clothes of rank (tignarkloedi) for the king, and costly skins, and an exceedingly fine table-service (bord-bÚnad)” (St. Olaf, 64).^[168]

“Ingimund then said: ‘Here I will show you, my lord, two bear-cubs, which I captured in Iceland, and I wish that thou wouldst accept them from me.’ The king thanked him, and promised that he would grant him permission to take timber. During the winter they exchanged many presents, and in the spring his ship was loaded with the cargo which he chose, and the best timber that could be got. The king then said: ‘I see, Ingimund, that hereafter thou wilt not any more come to Norway. Thou wilt need more timber than one ship can carry; here some ships are lying; choose which of them thou likest.’ ‘Choose for me, lord, that one which will bring most luck.’ Ingimund replied. ‘I will, as I know best,’ said the king. ‘Here is one called Stigandi,^[169] which bites the wind better than any ship (sails better), and is more prosperous, too, and that I will select for thee; it is not large, but fine.’ Ingimund thanked him for the gift, and departed for Iceland, where he soon arrived, and was received with joy by all.” (VatnsdÆla Saga, c. 16).^[170]

“Eyvind (an Icelander) became a trader, and went to Norway, and thence to other countries, and stopped in Mikligard (Constantinople), where he obtained great honours from the Greek king, and remained some time” (Hrafnkel’s Saga).

“This summer a ship came from Norway to the Faroes; the steersman was called Rafn; his kin was in Vik, and he owned a house in TÚnsberg. He constantly sailed to HÓlmgard, and was called HÓlmgardsfari. The ship came to ThÓrshÖfn; when the traders were ready to go it is said that ThrÁnd of Gata came there one morning in a skÚta and spoke to Rafn privately, saying he had two young thralls to sell him. Rafn said he would not buy them before he saw them. ThrÁnd led forward the two boys with the hair shaved off, in white garments; they were fine looking, but swollen in the face from grief. When he saw the boys Rafn asked: ‘Are not these the sons of Brestir and Beinir, whom you killed a short while ago?’ ‘Certainly, I think so,’ said ThrÁnd. ‘They will not come into my hands,’ said Rafn, ‘for property.’ ‘Then let us both yield,’ said ThrÁnd; ‘take here two marks of silver which I will give thee if thou takest them away with thee, so that they henceforth will never come to the FÆroes.’ He poured the silver into the lap of the steersman, counted it, and showed it to him. Rafn liked the silver well, and it was agreed that he should receive the boys. He sailed when he got a fair wind, and landed where he wished in Norway east at TÚnsberg; he stayed there during the winter, and the boys with him, and they were well treated” (FÆreyinga Saga, c. 8).

In hard years the exportation of grain was forbidden.

“At Ömd, in ThrÁndarnes, lived a chief named ÁsbjÖrn. He had three feasts every winter, as was the custom of his father. Then the crops began to fail and bad years came, and his mother wanted him to omit some or all of the feasts; but he would not, and bought corn or had it given to him as a gift. One summer he could get no more corn. It was said from the south of the country that King Ólaf forbade to carry corn, malt and meal from the south northwards. Then ÁsbjÖrn went on his ship with twenty men, and sailed southward till they came to Ögvaldsnes. ÁsbjÖrn asked the king’s steward, who lived there, if he would sell corn. He told them that the king had forbidden the selling of corn from the south to the north. Then ÁsbjÖrn got corn from the thralls of the chief Erling SkjÁlgsson, who was the brother of ÁsbjÖrn’s mother. The king’s steward went with sixty men out on ÁsbjÖrn’s ship, and took the corn and his sail besides, and gave him another bad sail. ÁsbjÖrn slew the steward some time after, when Ólaf was at a feast in the steward’s house” (St. Olaf’s Saga, c. 123).

Weights and balances were known to the Norse from very early times, as the finds prove; and their standard of measurement was the ell.

The earliest medium of value used as coin was the Baug (ring), which is mentioned in RigsmÁl, and in the earlier laws. We find that the reckonings were by marks and aurar. One mark was 8 aurar (1 oz.); one eyrir was divided into eight ortugar, and one ortug into ten or sixty penningar; this latter is sometimes mentioned as being of gold; it was customary to weigh the medium of exchange.

A man named Karl of Moeri was sent by King Olaf the saint to the Faroes to collect taxes due to him. Leif, son of Össur, took the tax (Silver) which ThrÁnd had collected, “and poured it out on his shield” to Karl. They looked at the silver. Leif said:

“‘We need not look long at this silver; here is every penning better than the other, and we want to have this silver; get thou, ThrÁnd, a man to look on while it is weighed.’ ThrÁnd answered that he thought it best that Leif should look at it on his behalf. Leif and the others then went out, and a short way from the booth they sat down and weighed the silver. Karl took the helmet from his head, and poured the silver which was weighed into it” (FÆreyinga Saga, c. 46).^[171]

As in the Greek, Roman, and earlier Byzantine periods, so in the Viking age, the island of Gotland stands foremost as the commercial centre of the North, as is proved by the number of coins discovered, showing that she kept the supremacy of trade for some ten or twelve centuries. The numerous English coins found there and in Sweden, show that the Swedes, and the people inhabiting the islands of the Baltic, were a seafaring people, and were constantly engaged in trading and warlike expeditions to England; in a word, they must have formed a great part of the host that made warfare in Western Europe. The runic stones which have been raised to the memory of those who have died in foreign lands are found almost if not entirely in Sweden.

Norway has produced fewer coins than the other Scandinavian countries, but this may be owing to their having been melted, as jewels of silver are far more common there than elsewhere.

After the Roman and Byzantine era the Arabic period begins. Trade still followed the ancient channel through the present Russia. Thousands of Arabic coins of silver, besides probably, silver ornaments, to which the name of Kufic^[172] has been given, struck in the countries ruled by the Arabians, found their way north from Bokhara, Samarcand, Bagdad, Kufa, &c., &c., the earliest dating from 698, the latest 1010 after the Christian era. Coins of gold are exceedingly rare; the greater number of these belong to the ninth and the first half of the tenth century, that is to say, between 880 and 955. From that time a great number of silver ornaments appear in the North.

Norway has not as yet proved rich in Arabic coins. Of Kufic only about seventy have been found, ranging in time from the year 742 to 952. These coins are the more interesting in that not only the names of the rulers, but of the cities, which then existed, where they were coined, are given; many are of the Samanid dynasty. More than twenty thousand have been found in Sweden and GÖtland; some of these, perhaps, came from Spain. They were probably brought by the ships which made voyages to the Mediterranean.

The two vases on p. 219 were found with Arabic coins and seven other silver vessels, and are probably of Arabic origin.

Frankish coins (800 to 850) have been found in Sweden of the time of Pepin, Charlemagne, and Louis le Debonnaire. In Norway of Charlemagne, Louis le Debonnaire, Pepin, son of Louis le Debonnaire, of Lothair, Louis’ son.

More than twenty thousand English coins^[173] have been found in Sweden and the island of GÖtland, fifteen thousand belonging to Ethelred’s time (998–1016); this number is not surpassed in Britain itself, and the harvest still continues in the North. A number came no doubt through the channel of trade, and others probably from the Danegeld, Ethelred having thus paid more than 167,000 lbs. of silver; part of this war-booty fell to the lot of the Swedes and Danes.

Coins of the ninth and the earlier part of the tenth century, are extremely rare, though England was much ravaged by the northern countries. I think no coins have been found thus far in Sweden before Alfred’s date, and only three date before 950, but new discoveries may in time bring others to light. In Denmark only a few hundred English coins have been found; of the time of Ethelred and his successors about three thousand in Norway.

The earliest English and Frankish coins, strange as it may appear, have only been found in Sweden and Norway, but even these do not amount to more than fifty or sixty; none have been discovered in Denmark, and previously to the years 780 to 800, no specimen of Merovingian or English coins have been found in the North.

The number of German is very great, and more than fifty thousand have been found in Sweden and the island of GÖtland; they date chiefly from the middle of the tenth to the middle of the eleventh century, and are sometimes found to the number of one or two thousand together.^[174]

The intercourse with the Byzantine empire which had taken place in the earlier centuries continued for a long time, and a great number of Northmen entered the service of the Byzantine or Greek emperors, as seen in the Sagas.

A bog find in Norway proved very rich in gold objects, Arabic, Byzantine, Frankish, and there were also found English coins and other objects.^[175]

Insurance companies were known from early times.

“Damages are to be paid if a disease comes among a man’s cattle so that one-fourth or more of his cattle dies; then the men of the Hrepp shall pay the loss. The man shall call five of his neighbours to him during the next half month after the disease has ceased, in order to value his loss. He shall tell them his loss and show them the flesh and the skin of the dead cattle. Thereupon he shall take an oath before them that his loss is as great as they estimated it, or more. Then at a meeting he shall tell how great they valued his loss to be and the boendr shall pay him one-half of the loss” (Gragas, i. 458.)

“There are also three rooms in the house of every man which are to be paid for if they are burnt. The first is stofa (sitting-room), second is hall (eldhus), the third is the pantry where women prepare food. If one owns both eldhus and skali he shall at a meeting in the spring say whether he wants people rather to be answerable for the eldhus or the skali” (Gragas, i. 459).

“Only the value of the clothes or things which a man owned and used every day shall be paid. If food is burned it shall be paid. The value of costly things or wares shall not be paid. A man’s losses shall not be made good to him more than three times” (i. 460).

We have in the following passage an early reference to the great fair of Novgorod:—

“One summer Harald (Fairhair) called to him his dearest favourite, Hauk hÁbrÖk (= high-breech), and said: ‘Now I am free from all warfare and hostility in the land, and will lead a life of ease and pleasure. I will send you into Eastern lands this summer to buy for me some things that are costly and rare here.’ Hauk said he should be obeyed in this as in other things, and the king allowed his men to go to various countries. Hauk departed with one ship and a good body of followers, and arrived east to HÓlmgard (= Novgorod) in the autumn as the fair began, and went into winter quarters. Thither had come many people from various lands, among them were the champions of King Eirek from Uppsalir, BjÖrn blueside and Salgard serk (= shirt), overbearing and wronging everybody. One day Hauk walked through the town with his men to buy some costly things for his lord Harald, when he came to where a man of Gardariki was sitting; he saw a costly cloak all over adorned with gold. This he bought, left and went for the money. Before this, the same day, BjÖrn had wanted to buy this cloak for the King of the Swedes, and its value was given. After Hauk had gone, the servant of BjÖrn came and told the trader that BjÖrn must, of course, get the cloak, but he said the matter was settled. The servant told BjÖrn. Then Hauk came with the money for the cloak, paid all, and took it away” (Flateyjarbok, i. 577).