Market exchange and rural communities in the medieval Czech lands (ca. 900–1400)

Abstract

The traditional narrative of Central European historiography postulates that early medieval exchange was based primarily on redistribution, with a marginal role for the market and a monetarised economy. However, important indications suggest that the involvement of rural communities in market exchange began in the central regions of Moravia and Bohemia as early as the 9th and 10th centuries. The establishment of central and local marketplaces in the 11th and 12th centuries in any case preceded the emergence of institutionalised towns in the 13th century. Archaeological and written evidence document a number of rural sites that were located at important communication nodes and became natural meeting and trading places. From the 13th century onwards, these settlements were often granted market or even full urban privileges. Due to the dynamic demands of market exchange, topographical shifts were quite frequent. This created a system characteristic of the High Middle Ages, i.e. a very dense network of market centres at various levels, from market villages to 'institutionalised' towns. The peasants could reach the nearest market within 2-3 hours. The paper focuses on the dynamics of the monetarisation of the medieval countryside, the emergence of market places in the period of transformation in the 12th-13th centuries, and the archaeology of market villages in the High Middle Ages in the Czech lands.