Been listening again to The Vikings by Professor Kenneth Harl. Audio lectures are from The Great Courses, The author makes a wild guess on the amount of silver carried out of the Carolingian Empire and away from England. Based upon written accounts in the 9th century he estimates between 40,000 and 45,000 pounds of silver […]
Short overview of the evolution of the means of exchange during Viking Era can be found in Viking Currency, an article by Dani Trynoski at Medievalists.net. A basic economic concept to remember: part of the definition of money is a means of exchange and store of value. A silver armband, brooch, or coin can be […]
Some day I plan to collate all the comments I’ve read on the amount of Danegeld and other money accumulated by various Viking raids. In The Vikings, Else Roesdahl provides details on payments to Viking raiders: France: 44,250 pounds gold and silver during 9th century – from context I think this is from the Frankish […]
Consider there was no secure way to store wealth in the time of the Vikings. There were no banks, no marketable securities, no way to establish reliable title to land. In essence, there was no store of value other than bullion or coins. So, if you had a huge amount of wealth beyond your livestock […]
This blog focuses on the finances of ancient times, with minimal focus on the overall society and culture. Perspectives of the Vikings have varied over time, ranging from them being vicious brutes pillaging everything they could find (according to the Christian monks suffering at the hands of the Vikings) to brave explorers and traders. For […]
Comments I’ve accumulated from a few other books fit well with the previous post Background on Viking Age – money, trading centers – 2 of 5 In Vikings: Raiders, Traders, and Masters of the Sea on page 99, Rodney Castleden explains much of the trade carried out by Vikings was in barter. For example, swapping […]
In terms of economic life, Viking Age: Everyday life during the extraordinary era of the Norsemen, by Kirsten Wolf, points out geography affected the size of settlements. On the coasts of Denmark and Sweden there were villages, meaning a group of three or more farms. In contrast, across most of Norway, the interior of Sweden, […]
The Viking, by Tre Tryckare, copyright 1967, has some fun speculation on the volume of annual trade in a major Viking trading town in Sweden. The large island of Gotland, off the eastern shore of Sweden, is about 1,229 square miles in size. It was a major trading center during the Viking age. Page 51 […]
One of the fascinating things to consider about the Viking and Roman ages is what economies looked like without a banking system or even a rudimentary financial system. Ponder just a few of the implications. Merely having coins allowed for trade that was more complex than barter. There was no way to transfer money over […]