1. Overview
In the early modern period, several of the most traveled maritime routes passed through the Baltic (Trade territory). The Baltic rim provided goods that were inherently scarce in Western Europe: grain, construction timber (wood), and building materials like tar and pitch, flax, potash, iron and copper (see also Eastern European economy). Most of the grain was shipped from Danzig (Gdansk) and other ports on the southern Baltic coast, while copper and iron ca…