Reviewed by Roxanne Johnson Pennsylvania State University
Bruce Gelsinger, in this ambitious work, chronicles the growth of Icelandic civilization within an economic context, by exploring com-mercial opportunity affecting the island during the Middle Ages. As a specialist in medieval Scandinavian history, the author has amassed an impressive bibliography including both Icelandic and non-Icelandic sources within the primary and secondary works referenced.
The book is divided into three main parts composed of seven chapters, and an Epilogue:
Part One: Icelandic Prerequisites for Foreign Trade Chapter One: Environment, Resources, and Material Needs for Medieval Icelanders
Chapter Two: Icelandic Institutions and Commercial Practices Chapter Three: Old Norse Merchant Ships and Navigation
Part Two: Iceland’s Commercial World
Chapter Four: Icelandic Trade with Norway, Denmark and Sweden
Chapter Five: Icelandic Trade with Other North Atlantic Settle-ments
Chapter Six: Icelandic Trade with England, Ireland, and the
Continent Part Three: The Course of Icelandic Foreign Trade: A Summary
Chapter Seven: Icelandic Foreign Trade
Epilogue: Icelandic Foreign Trade from 1264 to the End of the Middle Ages
The author indicates in the Preface that the documentation for this work was gathered from both written and archaeological sources. The archaeological evidence has been used to corroborate, or clarify where necessary, the written record.
Iceland is a land rich in history. This land of ice and fire, fraught with extensive glaciers and lava fields formed by virulent volcanoes, evokes images of challenge and unremitting hardship for the first settlers who colonized the isolated island. But the island also afforded these colonists wide grasslands and a fairly mild climate.
Driven by political disquiet at home coupled with economic travail due to scarcity of land and, consequently, opportunity, the first significant number of Scandanavian settlers arrived in approximately 870, beginning the Age of Settlement. Unfortunately, despite a brisk colonization period extending through 930, the opportunity for domestic production of certain foodstuffs was limited both because of, and despite, the climate and availability of arable land. Although mild, the climate was yet too harsh for an adequate growing season. The land was best used for grazing. With such domestic incapabilities, the development of foreign trade became an imperative.
The Commonwealth, a term applied to this initial independent age in Iceland’s history extends through 1264, and, in general, includes the Age of Settlement. It is a period of commercial development throughout Europe, and the burgeoning trade routes directly impacted Iceland.
As was mentioned before, the fundamental impetus for Icelandic trade was the necessity to import certain commodities unavailable on the island. Initially, this trade was carried on by the Icelanders themselves, probably using the ships which brought them to the island. Principal among the foodstuffs required was grain. In exchange, the Icelandic populace offered various sheep products, particularly a cloth called vathmál, used during this time as both a monetary unit and a commodity, and acceptable as both in foreign trade. The author indicates the value of several goods in relation to vathmál, as well as exchange rates with the accepted base, silver, over time.
The economic interrelationships necessary for the survival of this isolated island illustrate more than just the growth of this small island’s foreign trade. The author has included, as a major part of this work, an extensive analysis of trade opportunities throughout the known world available to these Scandinavian settlers during the Middle Ages. What evolves is a fascinating chronicle of a dimly perceived period of exploration, adventure, challenge and daring, all the more fascinating because it was not an unusual attitude during this time. Extensive information included in this work on com-mercial practices and economic opportunity throughout Europe affords us an overall impression of life during this period, and serves as a backdrop to the difficulties which resulted in the end of the Commonwealth in 1264. One of the most disastrous trends which sparked this event was the loss of Icelandic self-reliance with respect to foreign trade.
Initial success, as Icelandic products became well received abroad by the beginning of the eleventh century, prompted a reliance on Norwegian merchants willing to make the perilous voyage to Iceland, and provide the vessels required for the journey. As a result, most imports were received from, or at least through, Nor-wegian markets. Such reliance resulted in virtual isolation from active trade, the repercussions of which were felt when internal Norwegian demand for the grain products most needed for import by Iceland increased as supply diminished. At the same time, European demand through Norwegian markets for Icelandic prod-ucts declined, and other markets were not easily identified or assured. Icelandic trade practice, coupled with a decline in the general food supply, predicated the crisis which resulted in the union with Norway and terminated the Commonwealth.
This work, although not directly related to the history of accounting, is important when considered within a broad evolutionary historical framework. As descendents of Europeans who brought with them trade practices and mores based on the commercial interaction during the Middle Ages, accounting thought and practice (as evidenced today and when considered within the historical perspective) may be derived from this commercial activity.
