On "Emporium", or Economies of the Early Middle Ages (7th-10th centuries)

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze the role of emporium on the basis of a comprehensive shared vision that combines: 1) an anthropological approach, showing emporia as units increasing the political influence of the rulers; 2) an approach to Emporia as full early medieval economies. The proof is based on an anthropological theory of trade as a factor of politogenesis and on archaeological material fixing economic relations on the example of Slavic cultures, the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons, whose emporia were part of the pan-European trade - the economic system of north-western Europe in the early Middle Ages. Knowledge and understanding of the nature of emporia is necessary, first of all, for the study of political structures politogenesis, because control of emporia and of distant sea trade by the rulers of the chiefdoms and early states provided the elite with luxury overseas goods, raising its status and influence (power) in the socio-political system. On the other hand, it is assumed that emporia performed a purely commercial function, were the economies of the early Middle Ages, more important than agricultural production, and had an interconnected network of commercial relations. Moreover, for a long time it was believed the early Middle Ages was the time of trade decline. However, according to archeology, this is not true. As a result of the study, it was found that early medieval warriors-traders (the Slavs, the Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons) were active actors in Europe in the 7th-10th centuries. Moreover, this period was not a time of trade and crafts decline, on the contrary, in the early Middle Ages the most diverse nations engage in trade relations with each other, forming a business network linking them. The basis of such networks is emporia selling luxury goods and craft products over long distances. The nature of emporia is dual: 1) redistribution of prestige goods for the benefit of the ruling elite; 2) trade. The first function, initially the most basic, provided the leaders of the possession of rare treasures, increased their own political influence and control, the second was more useful to ordinary people and allowed for daily operations - buying and selling items as overseas and local. Emporia were centers of handicrafts and trade, but still they were not cities. The early Middle Ages, in contrast to, for example, the civilization of Sumer, did not become the time of cities. However, it was the time of emporia that existed due to agricultural areas, whose agricultural producers brought surplus product to such settlements. Staraya Ladoga, Rurik mound, Gnezdovo, Hedeby, Ribe, Birka, Kaupang, Skiringsaal, Hemvi., Ipswich, Dorestad, Kventovik belonged to the pan-European north-western early medieval system of trade-handicraft centers before the urban type.