Trade in princely towns

In princely times, trade was well-developed and carried out via trade routes such as “from the Varangians to the Greeks” or a pathway via Krakow and Prague to Regensburg. The main exports from the Kyivan Rus were furs, honey, wax, whereas precious fabrics, gold, silver, wine, oil, and luxury goods were imported. Internal trade was concentrated in town markets. Foreign coins (Arab dirhams, Byzantine miliares), European marks, and hryvnias of the Rus were often used as currency. Yet their circulation was limited, so fur (so-called “kuna”) often served as a unit of exchange.

Since the towns in Galicia-Volhynia, mentioned in chronicles, were located on almost all the most important European roads, they were essential trade centres. For instance, the transit routes through Zvenyhorod went from Kyiv to Halych and further into Hungary and the mouth of the Dniester, as well as from Kyiv to Przemyśl and then on to Kraków. The chronicle of 1086 mentions a road from Zvenyhorod to Volodymyr (Volynskyi) and further on via Lutsk and Korets to Kyiv. The analysis of chronicle records allows for assumptions about the possible road from Kyiv via Busk, Terebovlia, to Zvenyhorod and further on to Halych in the 12th century. Researchers also assume the road from Halych to Berestia and Dorohychyn.

Such an extensive network of roads promoted the establishment of these towns as active centres of trade and crafts both in internal and external markets.

Craft workshops discovered by archaeologists in the territory of chronicle cities reveal centres where leather was tanned, ferrous and non-ferrous metals were processed, and stonecutters, blacksmiths, potters, jewellers, bone carvers, and other craftsmen worked. The products were kept in spacious barns-storages. The text of the birch bark record from Zvenyhorod, dated to the first half of the 12th century, provides evidence that transportation means were rented to move goods.

The existence of a thriving internal trade is supported by numerous archaeological findings discovered during investigations in Halych, Zvenyhorod, Belz, Terebovlia, and Przemyśl. For example, spinning wheels made of pink Ovruch slate, decorations of rock crystal, the deposits of which are near Korosten and Zhytomyr, were supplied from the lands around Kyiv. Most glass goods might have been brought from Kyiv. The import from Kyiv also included little amphorae of the Kyivan type, metal decorations with recessed and cloisonne enamel, and some bronze engolpia.

The discovery of bronze Baltic-type fibulas, single bracelets in the form of a snake, and a spinning wheel with runic letters confirms trade with the Baltic states. Amber, used to manufacture pectoral crosses and cross-like pendants, also came from the Baltic.

A number of findings are of Byzantine origin. First of all, these are glass goods – icon lamps, beads, rings, and bracelets. Many goods were supplied to the towns in amphorae along with the luxury items – jewellery boxes, gold-and-silver damask fabrics. The goods from Iran and Middle Asia, including dishware, came via Byzantium.