Chapter IV: The Expansion of Irish Trade

When the Scandinavians had firmly established themselves on the Irish coasts they developed trade to a considerable extent, not only by bringing Ireland into communication with their new settlements in England, but also by opening up commerce with Iceland and Scandinavia, and even with Russia and the East.[122] Before A.D. 900 at all events, they had been accustomed to visit France from Ireland, and had trafficked with merchants there, using a certain vessel called the ‘Epscop’[123] for measuring their wine. That this branch of their trade was in a flourishing condition in the latter half of the tenth century may be inferred from a contemporary poem in which Brian Borumha is said to have exacted as tribute one hundred and fifty vats of wine from the Norsemen of Dublin, and a barrel of red wine every day from the Limerick settlers.[124]

The Scandinavians also made marked advances on the old methods of trading by building their forts near the large harbours and carrying on from there a continuous overseas commerce.[125] Previous to this foreign merchants[126] who visited Ireland used to exchange their goods for home produce at the numerous _oenachs_ or fairs held at certain intervals all over the country. These _oenachs_ continued to be celebrated during the Viking period, but it was in the seaport towns, Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Wexford, and Waterford, that the most important trade was centred. Dublin, owing to its splendid position, half way between the Continent and the Scandinavian settlements in Scotland and Iceland, and within easy distance of England, became one of the wealthiest towns in the West. One Irish chronicler gives a glowing account of the treasures carried off from there by the Irish after the battle of Gleann Máma (A.D. 1000):

“In that one place were found the greatest quantities of gold, silver, bronze, and precious stones: carbuncle-gems, buffalo horns, and beautiful goblets… much also of various vestures of all colours were found there likewise.”[127]

Dublin is frequently mentioned in the sagas and seems to have been very well known to Icelandic dealers. In _Olaf Tryggvason’s Saga_ (_Heimskringla_) we read that during the reign of Olaf Cuaran a merchant called Thórir Klakka, who had been on many a Viking expedition, went on a trading voyage to Dublin, “as was usual in those days.”[128] When _Olaf’s_ son, Sihtric Silken Beard, was King of Dublin (c. 994) the Icelandic poet Gunnlaug Ormstungu sailed from England to Ireland with merchants who were bound for Dublin.[129]

_Eyrbyggia Saga_ tells[130] of both Thórodd, the owner of a large ship of burden, and Guthleif,[131] who went with other traders on voyages “west to Dublin.” Still more interesting is the account in the same saga of a merchant-ship that came from Dublin in the year 1000 to Snaefellsness in Iceland and anchored there for the summer. There were on board some Irishmen and men from the Sudreyar (Hebrides) but only a few Norsemen. One of the passengers, a woman named Thorgunna, had a large chest containing “bed-clothes beautifully embroidered, English sheets, a silken quilt, and other valuable wares, the like of which were rare in Iceland.”[132]

Limerick is heard of only once in Icelandic sources; a trader named Hrafn was surnamed “the Limerick-farer” (Hlymreks fari)[133] because he had lived for a long time there. The _War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_ gives a detailed description of the spoils gained by the Irish after the battle of Sulcoit (968) whence it would seem that the Limerick Vikings had been engaged in trade with France, Spain and the East.

“They carried away their (_i.e._, ‘The Vikings’) jewels and their best property, their saddles, beautiful and foreign, their gold and their silver; their beautifully woven cloth of all colours and of all kinds; their satins and their silken cloths, pleasing and variegated, both scarlet and green, and all sorts of cloth in like manner.”[134]

Reference has already been made to the numbers of Irish women captured by Viking raiders; many of these captives were afterwards sold as slaves in Norway and Iceland. In _Laxdaela Saga_ we hear of Melkorka, an Irish princess, who was exposed for sale with eleven other women at a market in Norway. The slave-dealer, a man known as Gilli (Ir. Giolla) “the Russian” was in all probability a Scandinavian merchant from Ireland who had carried on trade with Russia. The extent of the slave traffic is further illustrated in _Kristni Saga_ (ch. 3) where mention is made of “a fair Irish maid” whom Thangbrandr the priest bought; “and when he came home with her a certain man whom the emperor Otto the Young had put as steward there, wished to take her from him,” but Thangbrandr would not let her go![135] On the other hand, the Irish frequently descended on the Viking strongholds in Ireland and carried off the Norse women and children, “the soft, youthful, bright, matchless girls; blooming, silk-clad young women, and active, large well-formed boys.”[136] Therefore it is not unlikely that the “slaves ignorant of Gaelic” who are stated to have been given as tribute to the Irish kings in the ninth and tenth centuries[137] were really Scandinavian prisoners of war.

An interesting passage in the _Book of Ely_ gives an idea of the activity of the Irish merchants at this period: “Certain merchants from Ireland, with merchandise of different kinds and some coarse woollen blankets, arrived at the little town called Grantebrycge (Cambridge) and exposed their wares there.”[138] It is not surprising then that the wealth of Ireland increased rapidly, so much so that Brian Borumha, realising that this was largely due to Viking enterprise, allowed the invaders to remain in their forts on the coast “for the purpose of attracting commerce from other countries to Ireland.”[139] And even after their defeat at Clontarf, the Vikings remained in the coast towns, whence they continued to engage in trade with England and the Continent. Both Giraldus Cambrensis[140] and William of Malmesbury[141] mention the extensive slave-trade carried on between Ireland and England in the twelfth century, Bristol being the chief centre. In addition to the slave traffic, large supplies of wine were imported from France, while the Irish ‘out of gratitude’ (_non ingrata_) gave hides and skins in exchange.[142] That there was commercial intercourse with Chester and also with the towns round the Bristol Channel may be seen from the names of the citizens of Dublin in the year 1200: Thorkaill, Swein Ivor from Cardiff; Turstinus and Ulf from Bristol; Godafridus and Ricardus from Swansea; Thurgot from Haverfordwest and Harold from Monmouth.[143] About 1170 two ships sailing from England “laden with English cloths and a great store of goods” were attacked and plundered near Dublin by a Norseman, Swein, son of Asleif; and some years later vessels from Britain carrying corn and wine were seized in Wexford harbour by the English invaders.[144]

The historical evidence is amply borne out by the existence of such old Norse loan-words in Irish as _mangaire_ (O.N. mangari, a ‘trader’), _marg_ (O.N. mörk, a ‘mark’), margadh, (O.N. markathr, a ‘market’), and _penning_ (O.N. penningr, a ‘penny’), and also by certain archæological discoveries. In Scandinavia coins of King Sithric Silken-Beard have been found,[145] while four sets of bronze scales and some weights richly decorated in enamel and gold have been dug up in Ireland (Bangor, Co. Down).[146] To the same period (early ninth century) also belong the scales and weights which were discovered in the great hoard at Islandbridge, near Kilmainham in 1866.[147] With such strong evidence of the influence exerted by the Vikings on the expansion of Irish trade it is not surprising to find that even as late as the seventeenth century the greater part of the merchants of Dublin traced their descent to Olaf Cuaran and the Dublin Norsemen.[148]

FOOTNOTES

[122] See the map of the Irish Trade Routes in Mrs. J. R. Green’s _The Old Irish World_.

[123] “Epscop fina” in the sea-laws, _i.e._, “a vessel for measuring wine used by the merchants of the Norsemen and the Franks.” See _Sanas Cormaic_ (_Cormac’s Glossary_) compiled c. A.D. 900. (_Anecdota from Irish Manuscripts_ IV., ed. Kuno Meyer.)

[124] Cf. O’Curry: _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_, II., p. 125. For a transcript of the poem see A. Bugge: _Vesterlandenes Indflydelse paa Nordboernes i Vikingetiden_, p. 183.

[125] Cf. _Laxdaela Saga_, ch. 21.

[126] According to an ancient poem on the great fair of Carman (Co. Kildare) foreign merchants visited this fair and sold there “articles of gold and silver, ornaments and beautiful clothes.” For other references see Joyce: _A Social History of Ancient Ireland_, Vol. II., pp. 429-431; O’Curry: _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_, III., p. 531.

[127] _War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_, p. 115.

[128] _Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar_ (_Heimskringla_), ch. 51.

[129] _Gunnlaugs Saga Ormstungu_, ch. 8.

[130] _Eyrbyggia Saga_, ch. 29.

[131] _Ib._, ch. 64.

[132] _Ib._, ch. 50.

[133] _Landnámabók_, II., ch. 21, etc.

[134] _War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_, p. 79.

[135] _Kristni Saga_, ch. 3.

[136] _War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_, p. 79.

[137] _The Book of Rights_ (Leabhar na gCeart), pp. 87, 181. Ed. J. O’Donovan.

[138] _Liber Eliensis_, (ed. Gale) I., ch. XLII.

[139] _Keating: History of Ireland_, III., p. 271. (Ed. Dinneen). Keating probably derived his information from Giraldus Cambrensis: _Topographia Hibernica_, D. III., ch. LIII.

[140] _Expugnatio Hibernica_, I., ch. XVIII.

[141] _De Vita S. Wulstani_, II., 20.

(See Cunningham: _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_, I., p. 86.)

[142] Giraldus Cambrensis: _Topographia Hibernica_, I., ch. VI.

[143] A. Bugge: _Contributions to the History of the Norsemen in Ireland_, Part III.

[144] Giraldus Cambrensis: _Expugnatio Hibernica_, I., ch. III.

[145] A. Bugge: _Vesterlandenes Indflydelse paa Nordboernes i Vikingetiden_, pp. 300-304.

[146] G. Coffey, _op. cit._, p. 91.

[147] _Ib._, p. 89.

[148] Duald Mac Firbis: _On the Fomorians and the Norsemen_ (ed. A. Bugge), p. 11.