Trade

From the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, trade connected the communities and principalities of Rus across waterways in lands now belonging to Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Rivers and lakes linked the Baltic to the Black Sea and Caspian regions, but these were not simple, uninterrupted routes. Merchants and their goods had to cross watersheds overland, change boats, and pass through territories where local rulers and trading communities shaped exchange. The routes carried everyday commodities as well as luxury goods, silver, and people held captive.

The route from the Varangians to the Greeks connected the Baltic river network with Constantinople, the Byzantine capital. The Volga route led towards the Caspian Sea and markets farther south. Northern trade with Islamic lands flourished in the ninth and tenth centuries, while the Dnieper corridor is particularly well described in tenth-century accounts. Merchants adapted their routes as silver supplies, alliances and regional centres changed.

On this page5 sections

River corridors and portages

The northern approach to the Dnieper route ran from the Baltic Sea through the Gulf of Finland and the Neva River to Lake Ladoga. From there, boats travelled along the Volkhov past Ladoga and Novgorod, crossed Lake Ilmen, and continued up the Lovat. Novgorod was a point of connection with routes leading toward the Volga as well as with the northern river network.

Travellers reached the Dnieper through connecting rivers and portages, including routes by the Western Dvina and its tributaries. At a portage, boats or their cargo had to be hauled overland into another water system. The Pripyat and Bug rivers provided further connections towards western Europe.

On the Dnieper, traffic passed through Kyiv and continued south to the Black Sea and along its coast toward Constantinople. Rapids made some stretches difficult for boats, and portages required vessels to be hauled around obstacles. The river route also connected with the Volga system through other waterways and overland crossings. These connections made the major routes parts of a wider network rather than isolated highways.

Northern waterways and crossings near the Valdai watershed gave merchants access to the upper Volga. Downriver lay Volga Bulgaria and the Khazar territories. Atil, the Khazar capital near the Caspian, was a major exchange point. Across the Caspian, merchants could connect with caravan routes towards Baghdad and other markets.

Boats, traders, and exchange points

The Byzantine emperor Constantine VII described the preparation of a southbound trading fleet in the tenth century. Tributary communities brought monoxyla, boats with hulls made from hollowed logs, down to Kyiv. The Rus bought and refitted these vessels before loading them for the journey along the Dnieper. Organising a fleet brought together local boat production, princely collection and long-distance commerce.

Novgorod, Kyiv, Bulgar, and Atil connected different stages of exchange. Some settlements grew along routes where traders met local producers and intermediaries. The trade did not involve foreign merchants alone: local communities supplied goods, while regional elites could influence their collection and movement. Tribute, trade, and political authority were closely connected, particularly where rulers could claim a share of goods passing through their territories.

Travel accounts describe taxes and encounters along the routes. The ninth-century geographer Ibn Khordadbeh reported that Rus merchants carried goods toward the Black Sea and, by other routes, to the Volga and Caspian. His account says that rulers in Byzantine and Khazar territories levied a tithe on merchants’ goods. In 921–922, the traveller Ibn Fadlan encountered Rus traders in the Volga region dealing in furs and enslaved people.

Goods and captives

Furs were among the most valuable exports from the northern lands. Sable, marten, beaver, squirrel, and other pelts travelled toward southern markets. Honey and wax were also traded, along with timber and products of local crafts. Amber came from the Baltic region. The range of goods shows that the routes carried products gathered or made across a broad hinterland, not just merchandise brought from distant regions.

Imports varied by route and destination. Byzantine markets supplied wine, spices, glassware, jewellery, fine textiles, icons, and books. Silver from Islamic lands travelled north, while goods such as weapons and crafted objects came from Scandinavia. Rus towns and regions also produced items for wider exchange. Ovruch in Volhyn, for example, made distinctive slate spindle whorls from the tenth to the thirteenth century. Finds beyond the immediate area show that such small craft products could travel well beyond their place of manufacture.

Trade also involved the sale of captives. Raiding and commerce could overlap: people captured in conflict were sold through routes leading to Byzantine and Islamic markets. Ibn Khordadbeh’s account mentions enslaved people among the goods carried by Rus merchants, while Ibn Fadlan describes enslaved people in the Volga trading world.

Silver, coins, and the grivna

Silver dirhams from Islamic lands were an important source of silver in the ninth and tenth centuries. Traders weighed silver with scales, cut coins into smaller pieces when needed and could melt them down. Coins also became ornaments. Western European denarii circulated in northern regions as eastern silver supplies declined.

Rus rulers briefly issued their own gold and silver coins around the turn of the tenth and eleventh centuries. These issues, including coins associated with Vladimir and Sviatopolk, were limited and did not replace the foreign coins that supported much of the money supply. Their designs and inscriptions also expressed the authority and Christian identity of the rulers who issued them.

The word grivna referred to a unit of weight and value, as well as to silver ingots used for payment. Ingots differed in shape and weight by region: Kyiv’s were generally rhomboid, while Novgorod’s were long bars. A Kievan ingot weighed roughly 140 to 165 grams; a Novgorod example was around 200 grams. The differences mattered because a unit’s value depended on the amount of silver it represented.

As coin imports declined, silver ingots served for larger payments. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries are consequently often called a coinless period. Written accounts continued to use units such as kuna, nogata and rezana, allowing debts, prices and fines to be expressed in money even when payment did not involve a freshly minted coin. The amount represented by these units changed over time.

Changing trade after the eleventh century

The Volga route lost importance in the eleventh century as the supply of silver from Islamic lands declined. The Dnieper route’s role also changed as Rus trade developed stronger links with western Europe and other waterways. From the twelfth century, trade was increasingly organised through regional connections rather than a single dominant corridor. This change did not end exchange between northern and southern markets, but it altered the routes and centres through which goods moved.

Mongol conquests in the thirteenth century disrupted established connections and damaged production in some areas, including the Ovruch spindle-whorl workshops. Trade did not disappear across all the successor principalities. Galician-Volhynian rulers, for example, maintained active commercial relations with European lands. The earlier shared network gave way to more regionally varied systems, whose currencies and trading links continued to change beyond the political world of Kievan Rus.

For the wider setting, see Kievan Rus historical context.