ere were English carriers too - an 8th century charter exempts the Bishop of Worcester's two ships from duties, for example. And we now that the English had at least some share of trade with the Mediterranean. in 1027, Cnut negotiates hard with the Emperor and Pope to get a good deal for English traders.
What did England produce for home use and export?
- England produced Iron for use locally and probably abroad, from mines in the Forest of Dean and Kent.
- Cheese was exported to Flanders
- Pottery, especially in Stamford and Thetford
- Textiles were probably exported - those woollen cloaks, the skills that produced the Bayeux tapestry (made in England).
- Salt making was an important industry around the Wash, the coast of Sussex and in Cheshire
- Lead and silver) was produced in Derbyshire
- Fishing was important for many coastal towns - particularly Dunwich, Southwold and Yarmouth
The oldest and most obvious trade was in Slaves. It's not just the Vikings that raided England for slaves; the Anglo Saxons raided the celtish lands such as Wales and Cornwall and took slaves. Bristol was a centre for slave trading, as it was to be in it's later history, sending slaves to Ireland. William of Malmesbury wrote:
'You might well groan to see then long rows of young men and maidens whose beauty and youth might move the pity of the savage, bound together with cords, and brought to market to be sold.'
Slave trading was banned at the Council of Westminster in 1102. But it's clear that for the Anglo Saxons it would have been an important part of the their external trade.
The evidence that England was a wealthy trading nation is there in the vast gelds paid to the Danes, and in the continuingly high quality of the English coinage. But it's difficult to see more than glimpses of how that wealth was generated.