Volga Trade Route

The Bulgar and Khazar river trade that linked the Baltic and Rus lands to the Islamic world via the Caspian in the 8th to 10th centuries.

Overview

Rus merchants ran convoys of furs, wax, honey and enslaved captives down the Volga to Bolghar, the market city of the Volga Bulgars, and to Itil, the Khazar capital at the river's mouth, exchanging them for silver dirhams flowing out of the Abbasid world. The dirham hoards buried across Sweden testify to the scale. Khazar control of the lower river made it the toll gate between north and south. The route declined after the destruction of Khazaria in the 960s and a general silver shortage in the 11th century, as trade shifted to the Dnieper and Constantinople.