Treasure of the Land of Darkness traces the traffic in fur from the lands of the north, through the major trade centres of medieval Russia to the consumer markets of the world, stretching from western Europe to China. Professor Martin reconstructs the fur-trade network of each centre (including Kiev, Novgorod and Moscow) and examines the changes they experienced. She shows how aggressive principalities enhanced their political authority through manipulation of such factors as fur resources and trade routes: thus the mid-sixteenth-century supremacy of Muscovy was based upon both political advantage and monopolisation of the networks of the fur trade. Quantitative analysis of the available data substantiates this conclusion: control over the trade of those 'lands of darkness' mentioned in contemporary Islamic texts was of fundamental importance to the political development of medieval Russia.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Professor Martin traces the traffic in fur from the lands of the north, through the major trade centres of medieval Russia to the consumer markets of the world, stretching from western Europe to China. He shows how Muscovite supremacy was based on both political advantage and monopolisation of the fur trade networks.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent survey of Northern Russia before 1600,
By Benjamin Trovato (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Treasure of the Land of Darkness: The Fur Trade and its Significance for Medieval Russia (Paperback)
Dwspite its seemingly limited subject, this is an excellent survey of the economic, and therefore political, history and geography of northern Russia before 1600. The author claims that Bolgar blocked Rus trade in the lower and middle Volga, a 'fact' that does not seen to have reached the standard Viking historians. There is no adequate discussion of the relation between the fur trade and other branches of trade, especially the slave trade, which many authors consider more inportant. What we need now is a similar study of the area south of Moscow. I have not seen this cited in other books, which is odd, since it appears to be an excellent survey.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
The first documentated trade center that channeled fur from the northern part of eastern Europe to diverse parts of the world was Bulgar-on-the-Volga. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
fur supply system, northern luxury fur, marshrutakh pokhodov, torgovoi politiki, letopisnyi svod, fur supply route, vostochnoi torgovli, northern gray squirrel, northern squirrel, fur trade network, luxury pelts, gubernskiia vedomosti, politicheskie otnosheniia, torgovye otnosheniia, squirrel pelts, narodnago prosveshcheniia, northeastern expansion, squirrel supplies, fur suppliers, boyar estates, rent mix, fur export, sable pelts, steppe route, fur supplies Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Black Sea, Golden Horde, Central Asia, Great Horde, Byzantine Empire, Asia Minor, Ottoman Empire, Mahmed Amin, Muslim East, Nizhnii Novgorod, Primary Chronicle, Prince Vsevolod, Teutonic Order, Abu Hámid, Lake Onega, Ibn Hawkal, Khazar Empire, Mikhail Berdenev, Lake Vodlo, Novyi Torg, Ottoman Turks, Paulus Jovius, Sea of Azov, Seljuk Turks, Staraia Ladoga New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The first documentated trade center that channeled fur from the northern part of eastern Europe to diverse parts of the world was Bulgar-on-the-Volga. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
fur supply system, northern luxury fur, marshrutakh pokhodov, torgovoi politiki, letopisnyi svod, fur supply route, vostochnoi torgovli, northern gray squirrel, northern squirrel, fur trade network, luxury pelts, gubernskiia vedomosti, politicheskie otnosheniia, torgovye otnosheniia, squirrel pelts, narodnago prosveshcheniia, northeastern expansion, squirrel supplies, fur suppliers, boyar estates, rent mix, fur export, sable pelts, steppe route, fur supplies Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Black Sea, Golden Horde, Central Asia, Great Horde, Byzantine Empire, Asia Minor, Ottoman Empire, Mahmed Amin, Muslim East, Nizhnii Novgorod, Primary Chronicle, Prince Vsevolod, Teutonic Order, Abu Hámid, Lake Onega, Ibn Hawkal, Khazar Empire, Mikhail Berdenev, Lake Vodlo, Novyi Torg, Ottoman Turks, Paulus Jovius, Sea of Azov, Seljuk Turks, Staraia Ladoga New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 39
books:
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6
books
cite this book:
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- Kievan Russia (The History of Russia Series) by George Vernadsky on 13 pages
- Fur Trade by Paul C. Phillips on 9 pages
- Kings and Vikings by P. H. Sawyer on 6 pages
- Kings And Vikings: Scandinavia And Europe AD 700-1100 by P.H. Sawyer on 6 pages
- Miniset B. Economic History (Routledge Library Editions: The Economics) by G.C. Allen in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
See all 39 books this book cites
- Russian Path Dependence: A People with a Troubled History (Routledge Studies in the European Economy) by Stefan Hedlund in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North by Yuri Slezkine on page 11, and Back Matter
- The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History (Encounters With Asia) by Thomas T. Allsen in Back Matter
- Reinterpreting Russian History: Readings 860-1860s by Daniel H. Kaiser on page 124
- The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History by J. R. McNeill in Back Matter
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