LOCAL MARKETS—THE NEW VIEW OF THE DARK AGES ECONOMY IN ENGLAND.

LOCAL MARKETS—THE NEW VIEW OF THE DARK AGES ECONOMY IN ENGLAND. Browsing the Surrey Medieval site, I found a recommendation by Robert J S Briggs of this article by Katharina Ulmschneider as an introduction to the concept of “productive sites”. She tells how metal detectors, by providing large amounts of archaeological data (mainly coins), have changed the view of historians on trade in the Dark Ages. She says, quoting a respected authority in 1983, that the view in that year was of an economy that until 800 was directed by elites,. Commerce was confined to “gateway” trading places.There were no inter-regional market places, although there were “small and occasional rural markets” for local produce that were not important for the overall economy. Some 30 years later, the new view is that local and inter-regional market places were essential to the operation of the English economy in the Dark Ages.