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.