The Wealth of Anglo-Saxon England

Abstract

Scandinavian historians. His annotated list of Anglo-Saxon charters, now revised by Susan Kelly, available online and happily known as 'the electronic Sawyer', remains a standard work of reference whilst his publications on the Vikings in both Scandinavia and Western Europe have substantially added to our understanding of the impact of these raiders and traders in the ninth, tenth and 11th centuries. Yet historians tend to be remembered for one piece of work, for good or ill, and in Sawyer's case it is for his important article on 'The wealth of England in the eleventh century', first published in The Transactions of the Royal Historical Society in 1965. In it he gives what can only be called a glowing account of the Anglo-Saxon economy on the eve of the Conquest, an economy with sufficient wealth in silver from the German mines in the Harz mountains, earned from the profits from an expanding wool trade with Frisia and Flanders, to support the circulation of an ample coinage of high quality that stimulated the growth of exchange and therefore of towns and trade. To misuse Eileen Power's later quotation, it was the sheep that paid for all. The influence and importance of this article should not be underestimated. It has been cited in almost every subsequent publication on the Anglo-Saxon economy and in 1993 Professor Sawyer was honoured for this and for his other work by one of the most prestigious of all historical accolades, an invitation to deliver the Ford Lectures at Oxford. Now, 20 years later, and delayed by reasons with which we can all sympathise, he has finally published the revised version of these lectures in a short volume containing only 114 pages of text, along with a valuable appendix on the mechanics of estimating the circulating volume of the Anglo-Saxon coinage and a useful bibliography. Its purpose is 'to explain how, on the eve of the Norman Conquest,

‘Ealle þas ungesælða us gelumpon þuruh unrædas’: Voices from the Reign of Æthelred II

“…298 Peter Sawyer has shown that the England of AEthelred's days was a wealthy country and that it might have been this wealth which enticed Scandinavian raiders to loot in the first place. 299 His assumptions regarding the volume of coin production seem to be feasible and concur with Simon Keynes' statement that the sums of tribute mentioned in the Chronicle might be adequate. 300 Apart from that, there seems to be no indication of a steady level of devaluation due to the payments of tribute to the Vikings, but a series of rise and fall in the weight standard.…”

Legal culture in the Danelaw: a study of III Æthelred

“…160 Sawyer credits this overwhelming quantity of stimulus-cash with being the prime reason for the Danelaw's tenth-century economic boom. 161 The boroughs of the Danelaw became hubs of trade and particularly of manufacturing, making them some of the wealthiest towns in England. 162 Likewise, urban archaeology has revealed that towns like Lincoln, Norwich, Stamford, Thetford and York were some of the largest in England by 1066 and that their economic expansion and urban growth likely began under Scandinavian rule.…”

“…162 Likewise, urban archaeology has revealed that towns like Lincoln, Norwich, Stamford, Thetford and York were some of the largest in England by 1066 and that their economic expansion and urban growth likely began under Scandinavian rule. 163 Considering this emphasis on cash and that wealth was likely especially concentrated in the hands of those near the top of the Danelaw social hierarchy, the legal system in these areas could have been designed to privilege these elites, creating cash-heavy criminal justice practices like lahcop. Overall, the entire ordealfocused protocol for 'accusation-busy men' in the Wantage Code, including arrangements for counterfeiters, seems to be a West Saxon concept, now being extended from Bromdune-enactment to the Danelaw.…”

The earliest arbitration treaty? A reassessment of the Anglo-Norman treaty of 991*

“…This was certainly Sawyer's conclusion about these early raids, noting that they were mostly in the west, 'probably by warriors from Dublin and other bases around the Irish Sea.' 11 Despite this the Norman connection to the raids has prevailed among scholars. For instance, Levi Roach, having referred to the raids of the 980s as 'small-scale affairs' and arguing that coinage shows that AEthelred was not unduly affected by these raids, still put the treaty into this traditional context.…”