Editing Viking Age (section)

== Trade ==
[[File:Model of viking age Aarhus 02.JPG|alt=|thumb|A typical fortified Viking town. This is a model of the town of ''Aros'' {{circa|950}}. The town is now known as [[Aarhus]]]]
[[File:Model of viking age Aarhus 05.JPG|alt=|thumb|Model of the fortified Viking Age town of Aros]]
Some of the most important trading ports founded by the Norse during the period include both existing and former cities such as [[Aarhus]] (Denmark), [[Ribe]] (Denmark), Hedeby (Germany), Vineta (Pomerania), Truso (Poland), [[Bjørgvin]] (Norway), [[Kaupang]] (Norway), [[Skiringssal]] (Norway), [[Birka]] (Sweden), [[Bordeaux]] (France), [[Jorvik|York]] (England), Dublin (Ireland) and [[Staraya Ladoga|Aldeigjuborg]] (Russia).<ref name="Birnbaum2023">{{cite book |last1=Birnbaum |first1=Henrik |editor1-last=Birnbaum |editor1-first=Henrik |editor2-last=Eekman |editor2-first=Thomas |editor3-last=McLean |editor3-first=Hugh |editor4-last=Riasanovsky |editor4-first=Nicholas V. |title=California Slavic Studies, Vol. XIV |year=2023 |publisher=Univ of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-34307-8 |page=7 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hVDhEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA7 |chapter=Medieval Novgorod}}</ref>

As Viking ships carried cargo and trade goods throughout the Baltic area and beyond, their active trading centres grew into thriving towns.<ref name="Price2015">{{cite book |last1=Price |first1=Theron Douglas |title=Ancient Scandinavia: An Archaeological History from the First Humans to the Vikings |year=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-023197-2 |page=336 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dbC6BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA336}}</ref> One important centre of trade was at [[Hedeby]]. Close to the border with the Franks, it was effectively a crossroads between the cultures, until its eventual destruction by the Norwegians in an internecine dispute around 1050. [[York]] was the centre of the kingdom of [[Jórvík]] from 866, and discoveries there (e.g., a silk cap, a counterfeit of a coin from Samarkand, and a cowry shell from the [[Red Sea]] or the [[Persian Gulf]]) suggest that Scandinavian trade connections in the 10th century reached beyond [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantium]]. However, those items could also have been Byzantine imports, and there is no reason to assume that the [[Varangian]]s travelled significantly beyond Byzantium and the [[Caspian Sea]].

Viking trade routes extended far beyond Scandinavia. As Scandinavian ships penetrated southward on the rivers of Eastern Europe to acquire financial capital, they encountered the nomad peoples of the steppes, leading to the beginning of a trading system that connected Russia and Scandinavia with the northern routes of the Eurasian [[Silk Road]] network.<ref name="Katona2022">{{cite book |last1=Katona |first1=Csete |title=Vikings of the Steppe: Scandinavians, Rus', and the Turkic World (c. 750–1050) |year=2022 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-68517-6 |page=79 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZDyFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT79}}</ref> During the [[Middle Ages]], the [[Volga trade route]] connected [[Northern Europe]] and Northwestern Russia with the [[Caspian Sea]], via the [[Volga River]]. The international trade routes that enabled the passage of goods by ship from Scandinavia to the east were mentioned in early medieval literature as the ''Austrrvegr'' passing through the eastern Baltic region. Ships headed to the river Volga sailed through the [[Gulf of Finland]], while those destined for Byzantium might take one of several routes through present-day north-eastern Poland or the Baltic lands.<ref name="Mägi2018">{{cite book |last1=Mägi |first1=Marika |title=In Austrvegr: The Role of the Eastern Baltic in Viking Age Communication across the Baltic Sea |year=2018 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-36381-6 |pages=97–100 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CGdjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97}}</ref>

The Vikings catered to the demand for slaves in the southern slave markets in the Orthodox Eastern Roman Empire and the Muslim [[Umayyad Caliphate]], both of whom desired slaves of a religion different from their own.<ref name="Korpela2018">{{cite book |last1=Korpela |first1=Jukka Jari |title=Slaves from the North: Finns and Karelians in the East European Slave Trade, 900–1600 |year=2018 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-38173-5 |pages=241–242 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xIN1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA241}}</ref> The [[trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks]] connected [[Scandinavia]], [[Kievan Rus']] and the [[Eastern Roman Empire]]. The [[Rus' people|Rus']] were of note as merchants who supplied honey, wax, and slaves to Constantinople.<ref name="Duczko2004">{{cite book |last1=Duczko |first1=Wladyslaw |title=Viking Rus: Studies on the Presence of Scandinavians in Eastern Europe |date=2004 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-13874-2 |page=215 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hEawXSP4AVwC&pg=PA215}}</ref> The Varangians served as mercenaries of Russian princes, then of the Swedish princes who founded and ruled Norse kingdoms in Eastern Europe such as at Kiev and Novgorod.<ref name="Blöndal2007 7">{{cite book |last1=Blöndal |first1=Sigfús |title=The Varangians of Byzantium |date=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-03552-1 |pages=7–8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vFRug14ui7gC&pg=PA7}}</ref>