As discussed in previous chapters, the spatial exclusion of Viking-age towns from the surrounding rural societies can be complemented by strong arguments for a separate jurisdiction enforced by the king’s reeve, with laws distinctly different from the provincial laws, as reflected in the later high medieval landskapslagar. This can be demonstrated both archaeologically through evidence of custom boundaries and historically through suggested analogies with contemporary continental and Anglo-Saxon trade legislation as well as from the substratum of later Scandinavian law codes. During this period, not only would the royal officials of merchant towns all over Europe have been responsible for defence issues and judicial matters but their primary responsibility would have been the collection of customs duties for their royal patrons. It was the kings who, acting in the background, purposely granted space for international trade in their realms and provided the compulsory judicial and administrative framework. However, as will be demonstrated in the following, this space provided for free trade in Viking-age towns was at the same time a very strictly restricted one.