An economic approach is used to explore production and exchange in Bohemia during the Iron Age, concentrating on the production of iron, on agriculture, and on the manufacture, use, and trade of pottery and quern-stones. The relationship of oppida to unenclosed sites is particularly investigated. The rise of oppida is seen to reflect the need for distrbibution rather than production centres. Their political importance is doubted and the intensity of the economic ‘boom’ of the La Tène period is claimed to be less great than commonly assumed.