Anglo Saxon Economy and Burhs

• Anglo-Saxon economy components

  • Money, how it is made, work, coins made from silver and sometimes gold, exchange economy, trade, imports, exports, burs
• Things bought and sold in the Anglo-Saxon economy

  • Imports: food, fine quality cloth, wine, pottery, jewelry
  • Exports: wool, illuminated manuscripts, books
• Saxon farms produced food that was sold and consumed locally rather than brought from abroad
• Quality of golden Anglo-Saxon jewelry was exported to Europe
• Wool was vital for cloth making all over Europe
• Wool merchants could become thanes if they had completed three trading trips in their own ship
• English scribes produced illuminated manuscripts and books renowned across Europe
• Bur


  A village or small town surrounded by a defensive wall, fortified against attack with an economic function to check goods brought in, collect taxes, and provide protection
• Fortified towns known as burs were effective in protecting people from attack
• First step in constructing a burr was to dig a very deep trench and build a wooden or stone wall around the town
• Constructing a burr


  Dig a very deep trench and build a wooden or stone wall around the town (palisade)
• Towns with burrs

  • Large gates on either end to control who came in and out
• The safety of burrs across southern England

  Increased trade and people felt safe and confident buying and selling inside the burrs
• Defended gates of burrs


  Controlled access to the markets and provided a means for collecting the king's taxes on goods brought in for sale
• Anglo-Saxon coinage was of high quality
• Coins were sometimes clipped on the sides to fraudulently obtain spare silver
• An Anglo-Saxon silver penny could represent a poor person's wages for an entire week
• Coins like these were not especially useful in day-to-day purchases
• Minting coins was a propaganda statement by showing the king's power
• Coins symbolize and strengthen the king's power while upholding the power of the church
• Saxon England had an exchange economy and an export economy
• The main export of Saxon England was wool
• Burrs made trade and tax collection easier and more effective
• Coins helped advertise the king's power