330 economy: The Islamic World traders amassed wealth by selling wood, furs, amber, and salted fish as far away as the Near East The traders brought home silver, gold, and luxury items Silver and gold jewelry gave prestige to their wearers But Scandinavians tended to be practical about silver and gold items, often melting them down to make coins when there was a shortage of coins or when the owner wanted to make an expensive purchase Viking pirates brought a great deal of wealth back to Scandinavia after looting monasteries and convents, villages, and towns They established three cities in Ireland for trade They raided Ireland for slaves, who were often transported to the east coast of the Baltic and forced to march overland to be sold in Iran From 991 to 1014 Danish Vikings forced England to pay a tribute, called the danegeld, bringing as much as 36 million gold coins to Denmark The trading and raiding gave Scandinavia enough wealth to create a cash economy In the process of settling in Ireland, England, and Normandy, the Vikings established enduring connections between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe that made Scandinavian natural resources, seamanship, and merchants permanent parts of the medieval European economy Northern Europe and the H anseatic L eague Much of northern Europe had never been under the control of ancient Rome, and its economy had seldom been more than a subsistence one During the 700s international trading centers developed in England—in London, York, and Ipswich—and in Sweden, most notably in Birka By the 900s England was a major producer of wool, and much of England’s wool was traded to Flanders Flanders manufactured fine woolen cloths, giving rise to towns where cloth manufacturers could set up shop and trade their goods The cloth of Flanders became highly valued throughout Europe and was a major part of northern European trade with Italy and the Byzantine Empire In the 11th century northern Europe exported large evergreen tree trunks from Norway and Sweden for use in European building; amber, furs, and wax from throughout northern Europe were also in demand as trade items Surpluses of wheat and rye grown in eastern Europe were transported on the Baltic Sea to ports in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany and exchanged for cloth and manufactured goods The Vikings controlled most of the Baltic trade until the 1100s, with the Swedish town of Visby monopolizing much the remaining Baltic shipping The town of Lübeck, founded in the 12th century on land the duke of Saxony had seized, had been a Slavic town Merchants from Saxony used Lübeck as a base for trading east and west along the Baltic Sea’s southern coast The Hanseatic League was founded as a confederation of merchants who wished to take advantage of the expanding regional economy by making trade easier Thus the league was partly the result of an already growing economy, but it also served to accelerate economic growth by making sure that its members had legal agreements to conduct business with many towns Government authorities often objected to the influence the Hanseatic League had on their economies, but the league was so powerful during the 14th and 15th centuries that it could defy government efforts to control it For instance, from 1368 to 1370 Denmark waged a naval war against the Hanseatic League and lost; in a reversal of more common relationships between governments and merchants, Denmark was required to pay the league 15 percent of the income from its trade A key event in the growth of northern Europe’s economy came in 1266, when England’s Henry III (r 1216–72) granted Hanseatic traders from Hamburg and Lübeck charters to establish trading colonies in England Since the late 10th century England had one of the most stable currencies in Europe Its silver coins were made by minters given charters by the imperial government to make coins People often cut coins in half or even into smaller pieces to make exact change for a purchase, so every three years the government declared all old coins to no longer be legal tender, and people had to go to the minters to trade their old coins for brandnew ones The exchange rate was roughly eight or nine new coins for every 10 old coins Most of the difference constituted a tax that went to the national government The result of this policy was that English coins became the preferred coinage for cash purchases in much of northern and western Europe The agreement of 1266 brought England into a special trade status with northern Europe that boosted the economies of all the lands involved, because England’s economy gave added stability to the international economy of northern Europe and England gained greater access to the raw materials of eastern Europe The Islamic World by Massoud Abdel Alim The seventh-century Byzantine world invaded by Arab Muslims consisted of politically organized, settled societies living in urban settlements (towns and cities), with an economy based on agriculture, free trade, and small crafts Although pagan elements continued to exist, the population was largely monotheistic and Christian (which incorporated many sects), with Jews and Zoroastrians making up most of the balance Kinship ties favored family, lineage, clientage, and ethnicity Seafaring trade crisscrossed the Mediterranean Sea Overland trade routes carried goods from Syria through central Asia to the Far East and back