Vadas Ferenc (szerk.): A Wosinszky Mór Múzeum Évkönyve 15. (Szekszárd, 1990)

Handelsbeziehungen - Johann Callmer: The beginning of the Easteuropean trade connections of Scandinavia and the Baltic Region in the eighth and ninth centuries A. D.

prêt in other terms than long distance trade. The inflow of material is massive and continuous. It is likely that this development took place only in the course of the eighth century - perhaps even the end - in the west and earlier in the east. We must now turn to the question of the agents of trade. Who were they, how were they organized and which were their motives? These question must be put but they cannot be fully answered by archaeology and since written sources are largely lacking not by history. It is however possible to come closer to the answers by discussing the indications in the archaeological material. In the Baltic region most probably Frisian traders appeared in the seventh or the eighth century (Callmer 1984 44f). They were familiar with the development and maintainance of long distance coastal shipping. It is likely that these traders appeared in small groups comprising traders and artisans and that they regularity visited local coastal markets in southern Scandinavia. There were perhaps also Scandinavian groups engaged in similar regular coastal trading along the western coast of the Baltic. During the course of the eighth century the Frisian element becomes less prominent and there is a general Scandinavization of the agents of trade (Callmer 1986 360). The very considerable distances involved in this Baltic trade connected with the West presupposes a well worked out organization of routes and secure places (Callmer 1989). These organizations may have been of the guild type, the earliest examples of which we know from Anglo-Saxon sources from the eighth century (Oexle 1981). Guilds were associations for mutual support and probably also a counterweight to feudal domination. Trade in the Baltic region was however already in the seventh-eighth centuries in my opinion already of such importance that also the life of regional populations was influenced by it. I come now back to the population of the Aland Islands. They undoubtedly developped very close connections with Finns and Estonians in order to supply themselves with furs for trade and it is also likely that some groups undertook hunting expeditions to the mainland for beaver and possibly also for bear. This hunting activity as already suggested ultimately led to an exodus of certain groups in the ninth century to the Volga (Callmer 1988 106f). The purpose of these establishment must have been closely connected with the fur trade. Trade in Eastern Europa also involved specialist traders covering great distances across the steppe zone (Kropotkin 1973). These trade contacts could not have been maintained without the use of organized caravans of packhorses or mules. This is especially the case with the Kama basin also but the connections between Mordovia and the south involved considerable distances which were not likely to be overcome without well planned and organized expeditions. It is thus probable that also in Eastern Europe long distance traders generally were organized in small groups specialized in transport and trade with the peoples of the forest zone. Were there also larger groups of the population in Eastern Europe involved in trade already in the seventh and eighth centuries? Probably the impact of trade demands was felt in a secondary way in parts of the forest zone. Imports had among the Finno-Ugrians of the Kama-Basin been integrated with cult practices which made it necessary to produce valuable furs in order to procure the desired objects (Lescenko 1976). This was however a general inpact of the trade felt by large parts of the population. As similar conditions probably existed much earlier than our period of interest there was no great change although the exploitation of 24