The emporium of Dorestad rose to prominence as a primary hub for goods coming down from the Rhenish heartlands during the eighth and early ninth centuries. Enticed by its growing wealth and prestige, Viking raiders sacked the settlement multiple times during the 830s and subsequent decades before politically attaching themselves to the rulers of the divided Carolingian kingdoms. Scandinavian hostility has mainly, sometimes exclusively, been blamed for the gradual economic downturn and eventual disappearance of Dorestad towards the turn of the century. Reconsidering the dominant hypotheses on the economic decline of ninth-century Dorestad, this paper proposes an alternative interpretation of the evidence, which places these events within a larger Frankish design to actively retain control of commercial interests throughout the region, utilising the newly established Scandinavian benefice to secure upstream centres of political, commercial, and ecclesiastical power.