In the 7th century BC, while fighting the Franks and proselytising monks, the Frysians already dominated trade around the North Sea -appropriately dubbed the Frysian Sea ('Mare Frisionum'). With stations as far as Sigtuna (near Stockholm) and Birka in the Baltic, to Hamwic (Southampton) and Strassburg on the Rhine, their trade eventually evolved in what was to be called the 'Moedernegotie' (Mother of all trades): grain and wood shipped from the Baltic, herring caught in the North Sea and most of this exported to everybody else. This trade dominated the Dutch merchant marine until our days and most Dutch shipyards were geared to providing the ships for it, from the fast fluit and sturdy kof to the three masted iron schooners and burly motorcoasters of a later age. These craft earned Dutch shipbuilders a reputation for building very efficiently, specialised craft that could negotiate rivers and seas with small crews, and trade at very competitive rates.
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