Dorestad became the most important economic centre of the Lower Countries as it was part of the north-eastern shipping routes due to its proximity to the fork in the Rhine, which provided access to England, Northern France, the Northern Lower Countries, Northern Germany, and Scandinavia. The economic importance of Dorestad was the reason why the Franks and the Frisians fought for almost forty years over control of the riverlands.

The main tradware were agricultural products, pottery, clothing, leather, weapons, and tools. From the south came mostly copper and brass products, like cooking pots, buckels, and jewelry.

As the Roman Empire in the west declined, the supply of Imperial gold coins dried up and the Franks, like the Visigoths, Ostrogoths and other emergent Germanic kingdoms, issued their own coinage in the name of the emperor in far-off Constantinople.

Pseudo-imperials are difficult to date precisely. If your kingdom was on bad terms with the current emperor in Constantinople, your gold solidi might carry the name of his long-dead predecessor, like Anastasius I (ruled 491-517).

Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch is regarded as the prime ancestor of a separate Dutch language. The “Low” in Old Low Franconian refers to the Low Countries, where Frankish was only minimally influenced by the High German consonant shift and the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law. The High German consonant shift, moving over Western Europe from south to west, caused a differentiation with the Central and High Franconian in Germany. The latter would as a consequence evolve (along with Alemannic, Bavarian and Lombardic) into Old High German. At more or less the same time the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, moving over Western Europe from west to east, led to the development of Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), Old Frisian and Old Saxon.
Hardly influenced by either development, Old Dutch remained close to the original language of the Franks, the people that would rule Europe for centuries. The language did however experience developments of its own, such as very early final-obstruent devoicing. In fact, the find at Bergakker indicates that the language may already have experienced this shift during the Old Frankish period.

The Utrecht baptismal vow.

Attestations of Old Dutch sentences are extremely rare. The language is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and loan words from Old Dutch in other languages. The oldest recorded is found in the Salic law. In this Frankish document written around 510 the oldest Dutch sentence has been identified: Maltho thi afrio lito (“I say to you, I free you, serf”) used to free a serf. Another old fragment of Dutch is Visc flot aftar themo uuatare (“A fish was swimming in the water”). The oldest conserved larger Dutch text is the Utrecht baptismal vow (776–800) starting with Forsachistu diobolae … ec forsacho diabolae (“Do you forsake the devil? … I forsake the devil”). If only for its poetic content, the most famous Old Dutch sentence is probably Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan, hinase hic enda tu, wat unbidan we nu (“All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for”), is dated to around the year 1100, written by a Flemish monk in a convent in Rochester, England. Since the sentence speaks to the imagination, it is often erroneously stated as the oldest Dutch sentence.

Theudebert

Born about the year 500, Theudebert son of Theuderic I (Thierry in modern French) was a grandson of Clovis. As a teenager he fought in battle against raiding Danes and neighboring Visigoths. When his father died in 533 (or 534 – many Merovingian dates are uncertain) he fought his uncles Childebert and Clothar to win his throne.

He must have had a high opinion of himself, because he did something then that shocked contemporaries: he issued gold coins in his own name, imitating those of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (“the Great”). For centuries, gold coinage had been a prerogative of the remote and semi-divine emperor. Putting himself on the coinage asserted that Theudebert was equal to the ruler in Constantinople. On the solidus, the inscription reads D N THEODEBERTVS VICTOR (“Our Lord, Theodebert, Winner!”).

About the year 570, Merovingian pseudo-imperial coinage disappears and is replaced by a “national” coinage very different in style and fabric. The sole denomination was the increasingly debased gold tremissis, at a reduced weight of about 1.2 grams.

Coins from early hoards averaged 85-95% gold, but by 670 the fineness was down to around 30%, with some late examples containing as little as 13% gold; in jeweler’s terms, less than four carats fine. They would have looked very much like silver.

The obverse usually bore a crude bust, and the reverse a cross. A common form of the cross found on these coins is the croix ancrée, or “anchor cross,” with two semicircles springing from the top in opposite directions. Names of kings appear rarely. Of some 32 rulers, coins are known for only 12.

Instead, the names of mints and “moneyers” appear, usually crudely lettered and often only partly legible because dies were cut too large for the flans. Over 800 different mints have been identified, along with over 1,500 different moneyers. These moneyers were artisan contractors, sometimes itinerant, who produced short runs of coinage from any available precious metal when local chiefs or clerics needed coins.

Eligius, Moneyer

The most famous Merovingian moneyer was Eligius (or Eloi).

Born about 588 near Limoges, he apprenticed as a goldsmith. His skill was so great that King Chlothar II (ruled 613-629) commissioned him to make a gem-studded golden throne, and appointed him as mint master at Marseille.

Under Dagobert I (ruled 623-634) Eligius became chief counselor to the king.

Gold solidi and tremisses in the name of Eligius as moneyer were minted at Paris and Marseilles and Palatium (“the Palace”) – probably wherever the King happened to be at the time.