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The east-west relations were steadily deteriorating. In 610 they split in terms of language, in 772-800 the west ceased to recongnise the eastern empires as peers, in 1054 the churches fell out in the great scism, and in 1204 the westerners invaded, burned and sacked Constantinople.

And look, the Viking raids started in 792. They were sailing with a new rig the year before. It looks more and more like they were armed with technology from the east against a common enemy.

The trade routes eastwards followed the rivers, and short caravan trips between them. They all point directly at the shortest paths from Northern Europe to Constantinople.

After the fall of Rome there was very little happening in terms of trade. The upheavals around the fall also meant a lot of migrations into Scandinavia in the period 400-600. The period before approx 1000 is prehistory for northern europe. The transition to written language is a bit gradual through runic that gradually show up on small stones and bits of wood.

Very little of the material points to the west between the time of the retreat from Britannia and the Viking conquests.

Italy managed reasonably well, according to the available sources. It was the rest of the western empire that took the crunch.

-- mrr