Trade routes abroad

The network of routes explored and set up by the Vikings was vast, extending over a great deal of western Europe, eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and the north Atlantic.

Goods which arrived in Jorvik from eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East may have been carried northwards through the Black Sea then along the river systems of Russia, to the Baltic, and across the North Sea to England. This may seem to be a roundabout route but it probably had certain advantages. Firstly, this route had been well-developed and long used by the Scandinavians. They had established trade relationships with Byzantium, which acted as a trading 'gateway' to the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. Secondly, there was a great deal of Scandinavian control over this route, which made it safer than some of the alternative routes through the Mediterranean or across western Europe.