Session: #340

Content:

Iron and copper have been traded in Europe already before the Roman era. In the North this trade involved ports of the Baltic and the North Sea. During the Middle Ages metal trade increased manifold and many ports grew into important towns, and in the 13th century the Hanseatic league became the leading actor in the metal trade. According to written sources from the 16th century dozens of ships left Stockholm every year, with osmund and bar iron as cargo. Recently maritime archaeologists have begun excavations on one of those ships that handled the Swedish iron export. This complete 16th century ship was found in the Stockholm archipelago. Ships with similar cargo have been found along the south side of the Baltic and the wrecks bear witness to the importance of metal trade.
Iron and copper were important for the social development of medieval and early modern European society. Osmund iron appear in archaeological finds since the 12th century and it was a quality product, created for large scale iron trade. Without the iron there would have been no churches, no monasteries and no impressive buildings in the towns.
In this session we will discuss the importance of metal trade in creating and developing a society as well as the technical development in shipbuilding and metal production. The focus is in the Scandinavian and Central European trading networks but we will appreciate papers related to rest of Europe too. We welcome abstracts about:
- Actors in trading and trading networks
- Demand, supply and credit
- Trading routes and trading networks
- Iron and copper findings in trade settings
- The quality of the traded metals
- Different modes of transport of metals
- Shipbuilding, cargo and the packing of goods

Session: #340

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