Book Info enlarge picture Origins of the European Economy : Communications and Commerce AD 300-900   Author: ISBN: 0521661021 Format: Publish Date:                  Book Review This is the first comprehensive analysis of the economic transition during this period for over sixty years, bringing fresh evidence to bear on the fall of the Roman empire and the origins of the medieval economy. The book uses new material from recent excavations, and develops a new method for the study of hundreds of travellers to reconstitute the communications infrastructure that conveyed those travellers--ship sailings, overland routes--linking Europe to Africa and Asia, from the time of the later Roman empire to the reign of Charlemagne and beyond.