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			RDF Christie's Images, London, UK/Bridgeman Art Library				Channel Islands and trade routes Nestled in the Gulf of St Malo, Guernsey is a perfect safe haven from Atlantic storms to the east and south. But until the discovery of the wrecks in St Peter Port harbour its significance in the medieval period had been overlooked by historians and archaeologists. Ships travelling from southern Europe and the Far East were believed to have sailed straight up the English Channel, using French and then English ports as stopovers. The harbour at St Peter Port, on the east side of the island, is further protected by the islands of Herm and Sark to the east and from western storms by the island mass itself. This natural harbour is an obvious choice as a resting place on long shipping routes. There is evidence of the islands having been used as early as Roman times as a trading port with chieftains in Iron Age Britain. Amphorae of delicacies like garum (fish paste) and wine were transported from St Malo in Brittany, via the Channel Islands, to the hill fort in Hengisbury Head (Bournemouth) and other settlements. The Channel Islands came under English rule as part of the Normandy estates of William I after his conquest of England in 1066. They remained so, along with Gascony, even after William's great-grandson, King John lost control of all other French territories. In the mid to late 1200s, Europe saw massive economic growth, with increasingly heavy trade up the Atlantic coast through the English Channel. Bordeaux was a major centre for Gascoigne wine exports, and Bruges for cloth. Merchant ships carried Portuguese and French wine, pottery, dried fruits, oils and tallow, wax, rabbit skin and cork to England and northern Europe, returning laden with cloth, corn, salt fish, tin and lead. Historians are starting to think that the Channel Islands formed an important distribution centre for this medieval trade. This would make St Peter Port one of the busiest and cosmopolitan ports in Europe. There is some documentary evidence to support this theory. Guernsey merchants' furious opposition to a new English law that classed them as foreigners and therefore liable to pay import tax shows the importance of trade to the islands. And 12th century documents listing the ships heading through Bordeaux record a number from Guernsey. The wrecks in the harbour could provide a unique insight into this life, the cargo carried, the types of ships used and life of the merchants and sailors themselves. ^ Top