Medieval Trade Resources

[Pontiuth Pilate]

This is for my history class... a project. I need a list of resources that were essential to medieval and Renaissance Europe [either raw resources or finished goods]. So far I've got [roughly in order of increasing value]:

Stone
Clay
Wood
Grain
Fish
Metal
Horses
Ores
Cloth
Wine
Gunpowder
Paper
Marble
Art
Glass
Gold/Precious Stones
Furs
Dyes
Silks
Spices

That's twenty... but I need thirty. If anyone can think of some others that aren't yet on the list, I'd really appreciate the suggestion I already ransacked the Civ resource compilation .pcx for ideas. But so far I'm stumped

 

[stormbind]

They had those things?

I associate medieval europe with iron broad swords, long bows, knights, stone castles. They used to import various gems and other precious minerals via the middle east, these were incredibly rare though.

How about lead? I think they used this as a roofing material and in other things.

 

[KaNick]

Copper?

 

[Achinz]

Some items that come to mind (from the game, Merchant Prince):

Religious Relics
Ivory
Wool

You could see if you can split up metal and precious stones get more items eg

Tin
Gold
Silver
Gems

 

[Gladi]

Bright day
First what I saw was a lack of amber and salt (yes salt!). Incense and its relation are still important, even though at least Romans knew how to make perfumes. Ah perfumes, hemp, linen, hops, beer. How essential? Essential peasant had essentially one shirt and lived on acorns and saliva.

 

[stormbind]

He's asking for stuff in medieval and rennaisance europe. This is a rather specific window.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Moderator Action: Moved to History.

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

Salt, and peat are two more. Also divide 'Metal' into different metals: Iron, Lead, Mercury, Tin, etc.

 

[Johann MacLeod]

honey
wax
leather
hides
salt

 

[HighlandWarrior]

cattle

 

[LouLong]

Wool and then the finsihed product (lots of trade between England (wool) and Flanders (finished product).

Salt was an important commodity, a lot of it was actually mined and special taxes were often enforced on it (Gabelle in France).

Alun and mercury were very useful during the Renaissance and were often "given" as monopolies (ex to the Medicis in Spain (mercuy) and Naples (alun). These were among the products needed for the "first industries".

Wheat was often coming from Poland/Lithuania/Russian areas and transported with wood and furs through the Baltic sea by the Hanseatic league.

 

[Kafka2]

Charcoal was a major trade item. So was Hemp/Sisal (for ropemaking).

China clay springs to mind too.

 

[Ossric]

from the EUII game:
Cloth, Tabacco, Wool, Spices, Coffee, Iron, Wine, Copper, Fish, Slaves, Ivory, Grains, Chinese porselin, Hides, Sugar, Cotton, Gold

 

[Johann MacLeod]

sugar
cotton
olive oil
pottery
linen

 

[Achinz]

Hmm...even allowing for repetitions, more than fills the quota - Medieval and Renaissance being a considerable period. Rerating all would be an interesting exercise.

 

[Johann MacLeod]

tar

 

[samildanach]

Slaves? They always feature in my civ games. Whether they fall into a group of essential MA resources is, I suppose, debatable.

 

[Adler17]

Fish. The Hanse got its great influence because of importing fish, which was eaten in the time of catholic holy days. I´m a protestant and not so firm, but I heard it were over 150 days in the year, where it was forbidden to eat meat and other things. That´s why they brought at first salt from Germany to Scandinavia and there they got the fish, which was prepared and then brought back. In the following time they developed a strong system of cities belonging to the Hanse. From Brügge and London to Nowgorod were Hanse cities or kantors. Many cities like Königsberg were founded by them. Riga had the law of Lübeck until 1871!

Adler

 

[Ossric]

there was an active trade route for slaves out of Africa in those days. They weren't considered as human at the time, so they qualify as "resource".

 

[Zandrew]

Originally posted by samildanach
Slaves? They always feature in my civ games. Whether they fall into a group of essential MA resources is, I suppose, debatable.

Slaves weren't essential then, like they were later to cotton farmers in America, but they were valuable commodities nonetheless and very common. When a Viking raiding party attacked a small village somewhere they didn't find much gold or silver, but they'd find plenty of future slaves. Even when they raided places like monasteries that did have gold and silver they'd take the monks too. The Vikings actually did more trading than raiding and slaves were one of the primarily commodities.
Other European civs did the same thing in the Middle Ages, I just mention the Vikings because they were very good at it. And slaves didn't need to come from Africa. An Irish peasant shipped to Sweden could just as well be on the moon regarding his chances of seeing home again, or understanding the local language and customs.