Since Helen Clarke and Bjørn Ambrosiani’s Towns in the Viking Age was published (Reference Clarke and Ambrosiani1991), extensive research efforts have been directed at eighth- to tenth-century Birka, Hedeby, Kaupang, and Ribe. Thus, the time is indeed ripe for a renewed concerted and coherent analysis of these earliest towns of the North, and the title of Kalmring’s book suggests that this is what he has produced.

At the outset, Kalmring states that scholars have asked what distinguishes towns, the definition problem, and how they worked, the network approach (Chapters 1−2). The time has come, he declares, to answer the allegedly unanswered question of why they emerged and thus reveal “the very purpose of Viking-age urbanisation” (pp. 2−3, 20).

That demands, writes Kalmring, a “holistic approach to an enormous, ever-increasing body of data—diligently gathered since the beginnings of archaeology as a scientific discipline” from “the entire Viking world,” both the homelands and the diaspora, as well as to “contemporary conditions in early medieval Europe from Anglo-Saxon England through the Carolingian Empire and on to Byzantium” (p. 3). No less.

Of course, such a monstrous undertaking cannot be accomplished within some 200 pages of text, and already at page 5, Kalmring declares that “emphasis will be placed on Hedeby and Birka.” Still, success would depend on a rigid analytical framework, and Kalmring’s main concept, “special economic zone” (SEZ), borrowed from modern economic policymaking, serves that purpose. Starting in the 1950s, governments have sought to enhance economic growth by establishing SEZs with economic, legal, and administrative institutions designed to promote economic growth in society at large.

Following this scheme, Kalmring describes a comparatively underdeveloped Scandinavian rural economy (Chapters 3−4) punctuated by four towns (Chapters 5−8). And then, in Chapter 9, he delivers his thrust: The four towns were “SEZs of their time” (as the chapter title indicates). Chapters 10−11 discuss developmental phases in Birka and Hedeby, and Chapter 12 summarizes the book.

According to Kalmring, the purpose of urbanization resided in the minds of urban initiators and protectors, the kings: “The royal interest in the Viking-age town thus seems to have been twofold: firstly, to ensure the acquisition of additional means and funds for the rulers’ obligations as gift givers and, secondly, to ensure a steady influx of innovation to a lesser developed part of Europe” (p. 138). The first is a widespread view in scholarship, the latter was first suggested by Kalmring in a Reference Kalmring, Holmquist, Kalmring and Hedenstierna-Jonson2016 paper and is now fleshed out in this book.

Kalmring’s argument follows the basic analogical scheme. Since the well-evidenced properties A (underdeveloped economy) and B (economic-opportunity zone) are present in societies X (post-1950 capitalist societies) and Y (Viking-age Scandinavia), property C (governmental purpose), evidently associated with A and B in X but unevidenced in Y, must have prevailed in Y, too.

Analogies are indeed tantalizing, because they “produce a mental click that is easily confused with the click of explanation,” writes Jon Elster, adding that “Intellectually, they are worthless, unless the hypotheses they inspire are examined on their merits” (Reference Elster2015, pp. 171, 173). Kalmring conducts that examination by rummaging the archaeological records of the towns for novel technologies that have spread to their hinterlands. He points to wheel-turning in Ribe pottery production, which lasted for 30 years and came to nothing, and the production of soda-lime glass in Hedeby, which was not taken up elsewhere. A pulley block found in Hedeby, probably from a treadle loom, predates the otherwise earliest such looms by 200 years, and a possible water-wheel blade has been retrieved in Hedeby, but since it is undated, its chronological relation to two tenth-century rural watermills in the hinterland cannot be decided. Two building techniques have spread from Hedeby and Birka to their hinterland, writes Kalmring; he is apparently unaware that one of them, angled external wall-supporting posts, was used in Tissø and Lejre (Jørgensen, Reference Jørgensen2010; Christensen, Reference Christensen2015) a century or more before it appeared in Hedeby.

This reviewer is unconvinced by these cases, and besides, if kings sought to introduce technological innovations in their realm, could that not be accomplished more straightforwardly than by establishing towns? For centuries, technological novelties had been taken up by rural artisans and commodity producers across Scandinavia; why not again? Kings—if they at all were economic policymakers—might rather have aimed for macroeconomic change, e.g., by boosting monetization, which would also generate kingly revenue. Eighth- to tenth-century minting is firmly connected to Hedeby and Ribe, but Kaupang and Birka saw no minting. Weighed bullion, which did not produce kingly income and was first practiced in the fifth century, was the liquid payment there.

Thus, in this reviewer’s estimation, Kalmring’s main claim, that eighth- to tenth-century Scandinavian kings implemented post-1950-style mercantile policies, remains unsubstantiated and unlikely. However, he should be credited for drawing the analogy to the fore, and it may generate hypotheses that might prove more fruitful, e.g., concerning integration and distinction between urban and rural economies, or whether urban economic vitality was the accumulated result of diverse groups’ uncoordinated agencies.

This lucidly written book has other merits. Richard Hodges’ evolutionary classification of markets and towns (Reference Hodges1982) is boldly restated, but could have been refined, had Kalmring addressed more of the criticism it has received, e.g., from John Moreland (Reference Moreland, Hansen and Wickham2000). For readers unfamiliar with Viking-age Scandinavia, there is much to learn, not least by cherry-picking in the extensive bibliography. The description of rural economy as fully agrarian (Chapter 3) needs to be supplemented by the ample literature on rural production for long-distance trade since the third century (e.g., Stidsing, Høilund Nielsen, and Fiedel, Reference Stidsing, Høilund and Fiedel2014; Glørstad and Loftsgarden, Reference Glørstad and Loftsgarden2017; Hennius, Reference Hennius2021; Skre, Reference Skre2025, 283–394).

The book conveys several aspects of Hedeby and Birka, often discussed in a dialogue with continental evidence, e.g., jurisdiction and taxes (Chapter 7) and protection of merchants (Chapter 8). Readers interested in Kaupang and Ribe will need to find their way through the extensive literature generated by the major excavation and research projects there over the last 25 years. Alas, the much-needed follow-up to Clarke and Ambrosiani’s Reference Clarke and Ambrosiani1991 book remains to be written.