The Southern Routes of East-West Trade

The history of the economic relations of western and eastern Europe cannot be told as a simple or even a continuous story. These relations did not develop similarly and did not play the same role in the economic life of different parts of Europe and at different points of time in the Middle Ages. In general, trade between west European and east European territories affected economic life and social conditions more powerfully after the eleventh century than before. Furthermore, the economic effects went deeper in the north and centre of Europe than in its southern regions.

The chronological difference is something most historians would take for granted. It is generally, if uncritically, assumed that trade – all trade – grew in importance from century to century, and was therefore more abundant and had greater economic effect in the later Middle Ages than in the so-called Dark Ages. What is perhaps not so generally accepted is that the more southerly currents of east-west trade should have played a relatively subordinate part in the economic development of the continent as a whole and of its main regions taken separately. It is an accepted tradition of economic historiography to focus attention on the story of the Mediterranean or Levantine trade and to treat its development as the main theme of European commercial history. Its preferential treatment by modern historians is easily explained.