{{Use dmy dates, date=September 2020
Raffelstetten Customs Regulations (Latin: ''Inquisitio de theloneis Raffelstettensis'', literally: "Inquisition on the Raffelstetten Tolls"), is the only legal document regulating customs in
Early Medieval Europe
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...
. The inquiry was edited in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (ed. A. Boretius and V. Krause, MGH Capit. 2, no. 253).
The document takes its name from Raffelstetten, a
toll
Toll may refer to:
Transportation
* Toll (fee) a fee charged for the use of a road or waterway
** Road pricing, the modern practice of charging for road use
** Road toll (historic), the historic practice of charging for road use
** Shadow toll, ...
-bar on the
Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...
, a few kilometers downstream from
Linz
Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846.
In 2009, it was a European Capital ...
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
). There, the Carolingian king
Louis the Child
Louis the Child (893 – 20/24 September 911), sometimes called Louis III or Louis IV, was the king of East Francia from 899 until his death and was also recognized as king of Lotharingia after 900. He was the last East Frankish ruler of the Car ...
promulgated a regulation of toll-bars on his domains, after an inquiry dated between 903 and 906.
The customs regulations are priceless for documenting trade in
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...
of the 9th and 10th centuries. The document makes it clear that Raffelstetten was a place where German
slave traders
The history of slavery spans many cultures
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and h ...
and their Slavic counterparts exchanged goods. The Czech and Rus merchants sold wax, slaves, and horses to German merchants. Salt, weapons, and ornaments were sought by slave trading adventurers.
Perhaps the most striking feature of the regulations is the absence of
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first ...
's
denarius
The denarius (, dēnāriī ) was the standard Roman silver coin from its introduction in the Second Punic War to the reign of Gordian III (AD 238–244), when it was gradually replaced by the antoninianus. It continued to be minted in very ...
, the only coin officially recognized in the
Frankish Empire
Francia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks ( la, Regnum Francorum), Frankish Kingdom, Frankland or Frankish Empire ( la, Imperium Francorum), was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks du ...
. Instead, the document mentions " skoti", a currency otherwise not attested in Carolingian Europe. It appears that both the name and weight of the "skoti" were borrowed from the Rus.
Vasily Vasilievsky
Vasily Grigorievich Vasilievsky (also spelled ''Vasiljevskij'' and ''Wasiliewski''; russian: Васи́лий Григо́рьевич Василье́вский) was a Russian historian who founded the St. Petersburg school of medieval studies an ...
notes that the document, being the first legal act to regulate the trade of the Rus', capped off a long tradition of trade between Germany and
Kievan Rus
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern Europe, Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Hist ...
.
Alexander Nazarenko
Aleksandr Vasilievich Nazarenko (russian: Александр Васильевич Назаренко; 1948 – 19 January 2022) was a Russian historian who worked in the Moscow State University. He headed the project "Russia and Central Europe in ...
suggests that the trade route between Kiev and Regensburg (''strata legitima'', as it is labeled in the text) was as important in the period as that between Novgorod and Constantinople would be in the tenth century.Nazarenko argues that the Rus' merchants arrived to Austria via the
Carpathians
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
and
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
, as became usual later.
Notes
Sources
* George Duby, ''The Early Growth of the European Economy'' (1973) pp. 131–2 of English edition
*
Vasily Vasilievsky
Vasily Grigorievich Vasilievsky (also spelled ''Vasiljevskij'' and ''Wasiliewski''; russian: Васи́лий Григо́рьевич Василье́вский) was a Russian historian who founded the St. Petersburg school of medieval studies an ...