Mobility, Trade and Control at the Frontier Zones of the Carolingian Empire ( 8 ^th –9 ^th Centuries AD ) *

Abstract This contribution highlights the measures taken by the Franks in the eighth and ninth centuries to control the movement of goods and people on the peripheries of the empire. It focuses on the northeastern frontier zone of the Carolingian empire, where Charlemagne adopted a series of restrictive policies aimed at channelling trade into centres, often fortified, administered by royal envoys. In the context of studies of the mobility of goods and people in the Early Middle Ages, restrictions of this kind were nothing new: in the first half of the eighth century, the Lombard kings Ratchis and Aistulf had already created trade posts at the chokepoints of the Alpine passes to control the passage of travellers and merchants into and out of Italy. Charlemagne himself had similar laws in place for the trade of certain types of goods, such as weapons, armour and grain. However, they were only possible if they were adequately accompanied by logistical and military infrastructure. This contribution argues that the Capitulary of Diedenhofen, listing trade centres located along the Elbe and Saale rivers that were fortified from 806 and onwards, offers the opportunity to study such intertwined efforts. It shows that for the Carolingian kings, and for the central authorities of the Early Middle Ages, the management and control of the mobility of people and goods was a fundamental tool through which they could impose their authority. Part of this article was written during my stay at the Center for Advanced Research ‘Migration und Mobilität in Spätantike und Frühmittelalter’ at the University of Tübingen. I would therefore like to thank Steffen Patzold, Mischa Meier and Sebastian Schmidt-Hofner for the opportunity to work in Tübingen. I would also like to thank Francesco Veronese for his suggestions and help during the first draft of this article. I also received many suggestions from Becca Grose, Sonsoles Costero-Quiroga, Marco Stoffella, Francesco Borri and Courtney Luckhardt, whom I would like to thank for their help and support. The corrections and suggestions of the two reviewers have also been fundamental in improving this article, and I am therefore grateful to them for their work. Any other errors of language, grammar or content are my own.