The long debate about the nature and decline of the ancient Mediterranean economy and the appearance of a distinctive northern European economy has been considerably enriched by recent research in archaeology, ecology, numismatics, and communications history. Particularly striking has been the expansion of research into untraditional areas—microregional histories of the Mediterranean, hagiography, and the evidence of physical mobility. The result of this expansion has been to redefine the problem of the ancient and the later economies and to suggest new methods for continuing research.