ノヴゴロド経済史概要（英語）

　前セメの英語授業の最後で、テーマ自由な英語のレポートが課せられた。それを際にして、このクソ長くて、中身がウィキペディアレベルも達せなった経済史のレポートを書いた。と言っても、これが自分の最初の真面目な英語アカデミックライティングだった。しかも内容は我が愛する母なるロシアの話だ。記念する価値がある違いない。一応ここに載せておく。

　　　　　　　　The economic history of Novgorod Republic
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　2018.6.9
1 introduction
　Novgorod was a duchy in northern Russia at the age of medieval, established in 1136
and lasted until in 1478 the Grand Principality of Moscow invade the republic and
annexed it into the new-born Russian nation.
Novgorod had many differences from other parts of Russia, like its republic tradition and
trading based economy. According Marxism economy theory, the unusual of Novgorod
between other duchies is mainly because of the difference of substructure, which is mainlyabout economy and way of production. And according to the Geographic determinism,we can nally regard the difference in economy into the difference of geography.
　In this report, we will base on these two theories to analyze the economic history of
Novgorod to have a better understanding of this unique nation in medieval Russia.
2 Russian geography and climate
　Russia, especially northern Russia,as the following maps showed, is lack of rainfall and heat, which is not an ideal environment for agriculture. What's more, northern Russia is covered by forests during the medieval, increasing the cost of agriculture development.

1Fig. 1: annual rainfall of Russia[1]

Fig. 2: average temperature of Russia[2]
   The city of Novgorod, which was the core of the republic, lays next to lake Ilmen
and Volkhov river. The river ow to the north into lake Ladoga and through Neva river
connect Novgorod to Baltic sea. Though the city Novgorod is located inland, different
from other merchant republics which are locating at coasts, it still has a good access to
Baltic sea, as long as the republic controls the whole area of lake Ladoga and Neva river.
This convenience given by rivers makes Novgorod a vital intersection connecting Byzan-
tine Empire, Scandinavia and Russia inland all together. Of course, Novgorodian mer-
chants took this advantage to gain their wealth through trading with different nations.
3 the economic history of Novgorod Republic
    As the last section revealed, forests and climate of Novgorod makes it lack of farmland,but provides Novgorod with one of the best hunting elds in Europe in replace. Fur wasthe main income for Novgorod.
    High prots of fur trading also drove Novgorodians to expand to other producing

Fig. 3: locator map of the Novgorod Republic[3]
area like Karelia and Ural like the locator map showed above. Novgorodians started to
invade Finn tribes even before their independence. we can nd this sort of records in
the Chronicle of Novgorod, like in A.D.1130 Vsevolod with the men of Novgorod went against the Chud people in the winter during the Feast; them he slaughtered, their dwellings he burned, and their wives and children he brought home.[4]
    This sort of bloody invasion was recorded in the Chronicle during every decades.
However, though the republic succeed in defending its valuable lands from Germen
crusaders and Sweden invaders, but it nally lost its one of most valuable fur hunting
eld Northern Dvina to Moscow at the end of the republic, which directly connected to
the fall of Novgorod.
    As we mentioned in the last section, Novgorod's superior location makes it convenience for merchants to trading between different areas. When Novgorod was just built, it was an important section on the trade route connecting Byzantine and Viking pirates of Scandinavia, which is well known as trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks.
    Vikings and Slav people brought their furs, waxes and other valuable natural goods
to exchange for Greek luxuries and books. However, since the Crusades managed to
established a new routed connecting west Europe and oriental together, and Viking's
are no more strong, this trade route nally no more important as before since 12B.C.
But before that, Novgorod did enjoy richness and prosperity from this route.
    Novgorodian merchants also tried to export their goods to western Europe by them-
selves, they've built trading house in Gotland, which was the trading center in Baltic sea.
After that, Germen merchants established Hanseatic League in the age of Mongol inva-
sion.,a trading league connected Baltic sea coast with German and England together,
Novgorod also joined this league. Novgorod soon became a vital middle man between
west Europe nations, especially German, and Russia. They sold Russian raw materials
to German and imported German made luxuries to Russian nobilities.
    The success in trading didn't solve the fatal weakness that Novgorod can't provide
enough food independently, it needs a neutral or friendly southern neighbor to import
foods in many occasions. in the Chronicle of Novgorod, it was recorded that in A.D.1215,
Novgorodian expelled their prince Yaroslav II of Vladimir because of his action of in-
creasing his power. The angry prince decide to revenge by blocking all grains heading to
Novgorod, when the city was in hunger because of crop failure. Luckily, the Novgorodian
army succeed in defeating Yaroslav and rescued the city from hunger[4, 5]. But when
    Moscow subjugated all other Russian duchies and decide to bring down Novgorod, the republic found that it has no ways to ght against Moscow, which nally leads to the
fall of Novgorod.
4 the superstructure based on Novgorodian economy
    Due to Novgorod's unique means of production, the superstructure including culture
and politics is also very different.
The richness of Novgorod made it have a more prosperous culture than other Rus-
sian duchies. A good example is that may letters written on birch barks had been
found in Novgorod, many was believed written by women, which seems incredible in
medieval since women merely receive educations during that time. Based on merchants
life oversea, famous Russian folklores like Vassily Buslayev was created[5], which is a
good represent of developed Novgorodian literature. And the chronicle of Novgorod is
also a good represent that Novgorodians had enough wealthy and spare to recored their
history.
    Novgorod can be regarded as a republic, but its politic system is different from not
only other Russian duchies, but Italian merchant republics and Germen free cities as
well. Novgorodians do have a prince(or knyaz ) as the ruler of Novgorod in name, his
power was strictly restricted by veches (public assemblies) and archbishop was believed
as the truly power center by materials like soviet history textbooks[5].
    Prices of Novgorod can be expelled out of the town by veches anytime, many prices can only keep their seats for about a year. And veches will elect a new prince from abroad.
    Veches also have rights like the declaration of war and so on.
The reason why Novgorod had so many democratic participation in its politic system
can be regarded as two economic reasons I think.
    First, though Novgorod has conquered vast lands in northern Russia, the city of Nov-
gorod still takes the main share of republic's economic activity. Other cities like Ladoga
and Neva are mainly trade pots serving the city of Novgorod, lack of population and
economic activity. So Novgorod can still be regarded as a city-state in some way. And
just as other city states in medieval, Novgorod also developed its democratic thought
among its citizens.
    Another reason is that the trading based economy and the weakness of agriculture
makes merchants and citizens had more power than other Russian duchies when com-
pared with landlords. The powerful merchants and citizens made it impossible for any
ambitious landlords to establish his own dictatorship in this nation. But exceptions
like when Novgorod found that the Teutonic orders, Swedish and Mongolians started
to threat the independence of the republic almost the same time, the Veches allowed
Alexander Nevsky, who rescued the republic from Germen and Swedish invaders and
kept peace with Mongol, ruled the nation for third times, 20 years in total, which is very
rare in Novgorod history.
5 conclusion
    Because of the geographic condition of northern Russia,the economy of Novgorod
was mainly based on trading, especially fur trading, while its agriculture was not well-
developed. The main trading route used by Novgorodian merchants have changed from
trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks to Hanseatic -Russian trade. Driven by
the needs of fur, Novgorodians expanded their lands far away to Ural and Karelia, and
also had to defend other invaders eager for fur like Sweden and the Teutonic order. This
way of production shaped Novgorod's unique culture and politic system. However, the
weakness of agriculture nally related to the fall of Novgorod. ɹ
reference
[1] http://www.agroatlas.ru/en/content/Climatic maps/pcpe/pcpe/index.html
[2] http://www.agroatlas.ru/en/content/Climatic maps/Temperature avg/Temperature avg/index.html
[3] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Novgorod1400.png
[4] Robert Michell and Nevill Forbes Ph.D.(translater),"The Chronicle of Novgorod
1016-1471,"Office of The Society, 1914
[5]著者　パンクラートワ　監修　三上次男　江口朴郎　『ロシア古代中世史』 東京大学出版会　1954