A bit of a strange question... do you know of any links or books that deal with trade in Poland pre and early twentieth century? Particulary allong the old trade routes of the Cossacks or Mongolians (both groups had routes from Poland into Mongolia and up into Siberia, Mongolian Cossack often being used as a term for ethnic Mongolians who lived as far away from Mongolia as Siberia and worked or lived in these routes).
Hello! Sadly, the informations are very sparse as it comes to the early medieval Poland, because most of the knowledge was lost during the past wars. I know some Polish books that deal with the topic, most of them tell about trade connections only of particular cities or smaller regions. The trade of that time was putting a greater impact on the interests of individual cities than those of the whole kingdoms or interregional connections, therefore if you want to know more about the old routes patrolled by Cossacks, I’d rather advise you to ask a specialist on Ukrainian or Russian history.
As it comes to the trade in Poland, the only good book written in English I know about is “Trade and Urban Development in Poland” by F. W. Carter, from Cambridge University Press. It is mostly about the perdiod from the 13th century upwards, but also has an extensive bibliography you could check out. There’s a preview of it in google books.
I could also recommend “The Archaeology of Early Medieval Poland” by Andrzej Buko [few informations about the trade appear there too].
In general, the most important trade routes going through Poland were the Via Regia [East-West] and Amber Road [North-South].
EDIT: I’ve found a good map showing the trade routes up to the 16th century. Posted here, from RCIN digital repository [source], preview:
EDIT2: I had to be too sleepy the day when I answered this ask, because I've read "twentieth" and "twelfth" for some reason. The info and the map are still useful in relation to the 12th-century period therefore I'm not deleting it, by my updated response about the late-19th / early-20th century is here.
