One Of The Most Considerable Articles Of Traffic
At These Fairs Consisted Of Slaves Taken In War.
Sleswig is represented as
a port of considerable trade and consequence; from it sailed ships to
Slavonia, Semland, and Greece, or rather, perhaps, Russia.
From a port on
the side of Jutland, opposite to Sleswig, vessels traded to Frisca, Saxony,
and England; and from another port in Jutland they sailed to Fionia,
Scania, and Norway. Sweden is represented as, at this time, carrying on an
extensive and lucrative trade. At the mouth of the Oder, on the south side
of the Baltic, there seems to have been one, if not two towns which were
enriched by commerce.
For most of these particulars respecting the commerce of the Baltic and
adjacent seas, at this period, we are indebted to Adam of Bremen. He was
canon of Bremen in the eleventh century: and from the accounts of the
missionaries who went into Lapland, and other parts of the North, to
convert the inhabitants to Christianity, the information he received from
the king of Denmark, and his own observations, he drew up a detailed
account of the Scandinavian kingdoms. His description of Jutland is full,
and he mentions several islands in the Baltic, which are not noticed by
prior writers. He also treats of the interior parts of Sweden, the coasts
only of which had been previously made known by the voyages published by
king Alfred. Of Russia, he informs us that it was a very extensive kingdom,
the capital of which was Kiev; and that the inhabitants traded with the
Greeks in the Black Sea.
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