Valor & Gutiérrez/Archaeology of Medieval Spain, 6. Trade, Transport and Travel

This chapter studies the trade and transport systems as clear indicators of the nature and health of the economic system of any society. The volume and scale of exchange and transfer of goods, people, skills and ideas constitute a measure of the systems of production and of the distribution of goods, from a local or regional scale to an international one. The buildings, public constructions and objects unearthed by archaeology enable us to identify whether a settlement had a subsistence economy, producing its own artefacts such as ceramics or metals and food without external trade, or whether the state had developed a complex market economy with far reaching trade and cultural contacts.