=115. Conditions and wares of the Baltic trade.=—The wares of the northern trade present a contrast to those which furnished the material of eastern commerce. In the first place the countries of central Europe found in Scandinavia and the Northeast, which formed the trading ground, peoples who were their industrial inferiors; these peoples were glad to receive manufactures instead of supplying them. Secondly, the cost of carriage was much less in the North than in the South, not only because transportation was almost entirely by sea and over a shorter route, but also because the tolls on trade were much less than in the Asiatic countries. It was possible, therefore, to trade in bulky articles of comparatively small value. The luxuries which formed so large a part of the eastern exports were scarcely represented in the northern trade. Amber can be put in this class, though the trade in it was of no great importance; this was a fossilized resin which was found on the coast of the Baltic, and which was used for ornaments. Wax was a far more considerable item of export, which may, perhaps, be regarded as a luxury, since it found its chief employment in the form of candles used in church services. =116. Exports from the Baltic, mainly raw materials.=—Most of the exports from northeastern Europe were raw materials serving the simpler needs of man. Among the foodstuffs fish took the first place. Until the fifteenth century the herring, which does not now range outside the waters of the North Sea and the open ocean, came each year in late summer to the Swedish and German coasts of the Baltic; and the trade in dried and salted fish, especially herring, was one of the chief branches of northern commerce. The whole population of western Europe was at this time Roman Catholic, and the consumption of fish was of course stimulated by the rules of the church. Other foodstuffs exported were honey, butter, and salt meat. The Northeast had no textiles to offer to the rest of Europe, but in its furs it had a substitute for them which was most highly prized. The furs included not only the finer varieties, the use of which was restricted to the upper classes, but also common grades that were desired as much for their warmth as for their appearance. Houses were so poorly heated that comfort was impossible without thick clothing. We can understand, therefore, the complaint of a German bishop who said that “we strive as hard to come into the possession of a marten skin as if it were everlasting salvation.” Other raw materials exported were skins and tallow from animal industry, and forestry products which were destined to be the mainstay of the Baltic trade in later times, various forms of timber and the group of products known later as “naval stores,” including pitch, tar, and turpentine.