Dans l'Europe du Nord des VIIe-IXe siècles: commerce frison ou commerce franco-frison?

• Published in: Annales : histoire, sciences sociales (French ed.) sciences sociales (French ed.), 1986-03, Vol.41 (2), p.361-377
• Main Author: Lebecq, Stéphane
• Format: Article
• Language: fre
• Subjects: Le Haut Moyen Age
• ISSN: 0395-2649; 1953-8146

In this article, the author intends to make explicit some of the ideas put forward in his book: "Marchands et navigateurs frisons du Haut Moyen Age" (Lille, 1983). He wants to emphasize, in particular, the need for the "great Frisian trade" in the 7th-9th centuries not to be underrated, so long as, when evoking Friesland and the Frisians, one takes into account the reference in contemporary sources to a vast territory located between the Scheldt and the Weser; this includes the Rhine's great delta, dominated by Dorestad, whose population, at this point, was experiencing both the Frankish and Frisian apogee. Consequently, it appears that, while the Frisians were backing up this expansion in trade with their maritime experience and technique, which was unequalled to start with, the Franks doted it with a pacific and prosperous hinterland (at least as long as the apogee lasted), making efforts to integrate it within the framework of a genuine Northern policy, the aim of which was to penetrate the Northern countries whose threat was becoming more and more perceptible under Charlemagne and Louis the Pious.