Medieval Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean and Beyond

David Jacoby

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780367888688
• eBook ISBN: 9781351583688
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

Collected Studies CS1066

The articles in this collection cover the region extending from Italy to the Black Sea and to Egypt, over a period of seven centuries, with an emphasis on the considerable economic and social interaction between the West and the regions of the Eastern Mediterranean. They represent key works in the oeuvre of David Jacoby, the doyen of scholars in the field over many decades.

1

Venetian commercial expansion in the eastern Mediterranean, 8^th–11^th centuries

David Jacoby

The spectacular rise of Venice from a small community scattered over a cluster of islands in the northern Adriatic to a major maritime power in the Mediterranean in the 12^th century was furthered by a conjunction of political, military and economic developments over several centuries.¹ Venice’s relations with Byzantium are considered to have been a major factor in its economic growth and commercial expansion. On the other hand, Venetian trading with the Muslims in the 10^th and 11^th centuries is generally viewed as marginal in that respect. In addition, the Muslims have been treated as one bloc, without proper distinction between states and regional economies. More generally, Venice’s commercial exchanges with Byzantium, on the one hand, and Muslim countries, on the other, are regarded as having been largely conducted independently from each other. This bi-polar and fragmented perspective of Venetian trading in the eastern Mediterranean, in accordance with a long-standing Eurocentric tradition, is utterly distorted.² The present paper suggests a different approach. It examines Venetian commercial expansion both in connection with Byzantium and Muslim entities within the context of the decisive changes affecting the economies of the eastern Mediterranean in the 10^th and 11^th centuries, with due attention to the interdependence between them, and attempts to determine Venice’s role in their interaction.

Venice’s commercial and maritime expansion in the eastern Mediterranean was underway and its basic patterns were already established by the late 8^th century.³ The Venetians imported silks from Byzantium and Syria-Lebanon, ⁴ and costly furs from the Black Sea region and Dalmatia.⁵ Egypt was one of the sources of oriental spices, dyestuffs and aromatics, among which myrrh and frankincense from the Arabian peninsula were widely used in the Christian liturgy. The Venetians appear to have regularly visited Jerusalem in the late 8^th century, undoubtedly in connection with the seasonal fair surrounding Christian pilgrimage and the availability of costly oriental commodities arriving from Baghdad.⁶ They must have also brought these goods from Byzantium. From the second half of the 9^th century onwards, Trebizond was a major market at the crossroads of Byzantine, Armenian and Muslim states and commercial routes.⁷ Venetia relations with Egypt and Syria are further illustrated by the decree prohibiting trade with these regions issued in Venice under the pressure of Emperor Leo V of Byzantium (reigned 813–20), who attempted to enforce a blockade on these regions. The implementation of the decree had ceased long before 828, when ten Venetian ships sailed to Alexandria in what was clearly a routine journey and returned with St Mark’s relics.⁸ It is likely that Venetian ships and merchants crossed the friendly and relatively secure Byzantine waters with which they were familiar to reach the Levant and Egypt, rather than sailing via Sicily and along the African coast, where for long stretches there were few sources of sweet water and few trading opportunities. Incidentally, it has not been noted that Venetian merchants and ships were the first Italians in the middle ages to engage in trans-Mediterranean voyages to Egypt. The continuity of Venetian trade with Ifriqiya is illustrated by the transfer of slaves bought in Rome to that region in the mid-8^th century and the sailing of Muslim envoys from the Maghreb to Sicily on Venetian ships, reported by Pope Leo III in 813.⁹ Venice’s multilateral trade relations are confirmed by finds of Carolingian, Byzantine, Ummayad and Abbasid coins from the 8^th and early 9^th centuries, some in Torcello and others in Venice.¹⁰

From the 8^th to 10^th centuries, Venice concluded a series of treaties with the Lombard, Carolingian and Ottonian rulers successively controlling the neighbouring mainland. The purpose of these treaties was to ensure the preservation of the city’s virtual political independence, the Venetian diffusion of commodities imported by Venice from the eastern Mediterranean, both in northern Italy and beyond the Alps, and the orderly supplies of food, finished products and raw materials from the mainland. Both naval timber from the Alps floated down the rivers to the head of the Adriatic and iron from the area of Brescia in northern Italy and from Carinthia were of special importance in that context.¹¹ The construction of ships for commercial and military use and the manufacture of weapons were key factors in Venice’s commercial and maritime expansion in the Adriatic and in the eastern Mediterranean. Venice boosted its naval power in the 9^th century by the adoption of a Byzantine type of galley, technically superior to the ships sailing until then in the Adriatic. The Venetian chronicler Giovanni Diacono reports under the year 852 that two such ships, ‘called zalandriae in the Greek language’, in fact chelandie, were constructed by the doges, and that never before had that been achieved in Venice.¹² Their construction implies the presence of Byzantine shipwrights in Venice or the apprenticeship of Venetian craftsmen in Byzantium. Naval timber also became an important export item to Muslim countries by the first half of the 10^th century, as we shall see below.

The Adriatic expansion of Venice in the 10^th century gradually removed actual or potential commercial rivals and ensured increasing security of navigation along the Dalmatian coast, the preferred sailing-lane between Venice and the Mediterranean, unless ships called in Italian ports.¹³ Yet in the Dalmation region there was yet another, less conspicuous factor at play, namely access to naval timber. This is indirectly confirmed in 971, when Venice prohibited ships sailing to the Mediterranean from loading it along the way, a reference to the Dalmatian coast.¹⁴ This period coincides with an increasing Egyptian demand for timber, examined below.

The combination of abundant supplies of timber and iron as well as advanced technical expertise in shipbuilding eventually ensured Venice of naval superiority in the Adriatic, yet also yielded important commercial benefits, since the same ships were used in commercial and military enterprises in that period. Venice established its commercial dominance at the head of the Adriatic at the expense of its rivals, obtained commercial concessions from Byzantium in return for the promise or for actual naval support, and consolidated thereby its function as commercial intermediary between its continental hinterland and the eastern Mediterranean.

Venice’s ongoing role as intermediary between Germany and the eastern Mediterranean is illustrated by a Venetian decree of 960 attesting to the transfer of letters from the Regnum Italiae, Bavaria and Saxony to Constantinople.¹⁵ Several envoys of King and later Emperor Otto I passed through Venice and sailed on Venetian ships to Byzantium: in 949, Liutfrid, a very rich merchant from Mainz, presumably involved in business with Venetians,¹⁶ in 967, Dominicus Venedicus, a merchant most likely familiar with Constantinople;¹⁷ and in 968, Bishop Liudprand of Cremona.¹⁸ Around 965, the Spanish Jew Ibrahim ibn Ya’qub was surprised to find in Mainz all the spices of India and the Far East.¹⁹ The Honorantie civitatis Papie, the market regulations of Pavia compiled between 991 and 1004, mention yearly Venetian imports of similar spices as well as dyestuffs and silks.²⁰ The spices must have reached Mainz through Pavia or directly from Venice, considering this city’s relations with the German imperial court, rather than from eastern Europe with Slav merchants, as has been suggested by some. Doge Otto Orseolo (reigned 1009–26) limited Venetian sales of silks on the mainland to Pavia and Ferrara.²¹

The importance of Venice’s simultaneous relations with Muslim states, Byzantium and the Italian mainland is well illustrated soon after the election of Doge Pietro II Orseolo in 991. The new doge conducted successful negotiations with foreign rulers, which incidentally illustrate the full extent of Venice’s independent policies and standing at that time.²² Egypt must have stressed its strong interest in the continuation of timber, iron and arms deliveries. In March 992, the Byzantine emperors Basil II and Constantine VIII reinstated a previously granted reduction in the passage fee paid by Venetian ships at Abydos and eased control over their cargo. On the other hand, on their return voyage Venetian vessels were barred from transporting foreigners in order to prevent the latter from taking advantage of this provision to export illegally silk textiles.²³ The implementation of this last measure curtailed Venetian revenue from freight without eliminating foreign competition, since Venice’s rivals could board other ships. The Venetians were nevertheless the only Italians enjoying a favoured treatment in the Empire. Finally, in July 992, the German emperor Otto III renewed the privile...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Addenda et Corrigenda
• 1. “Venetian Commercial Expansion in the eastern Mediterranean, 8th–11th centuries”, in Marlia Mundell Mango, ed., Byzantine Trade, 4th–12th Centuries. The Archaeology of Local, Regional and International Exchange (Papers of the Thirty-eight Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, St. John’s College, University of Oxford, March 2004), Farnham: Ashgate, 2009, pp. 371–391
• 2. “The Venetians in Byzantine and Lusignan Cyprus: Trade, Settlement, and Politics”, in A. Nicolaou-Konnari, ed., La Serenissima and la Nobilissima: Venice in Cyprus and Cyprus in Venice, Nicosia: Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, 2009, pp. 59–100
• 3. “Commercio e navigazione degli Amalftani nel Mediterraneo orientale: sviluppo e declino”, in Bruno Figliuolo e Pinuccia F. Simbula, eds., Interscambi socio-culturali ed economici fra le città marinare d’Italia e l’Occidente dagli osservatorî mediterranei, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Amalf 14–16 maggio 2011, Amalf: Centro di Cultura e Storia Amalftana, 2014, pp. 89–128
• 4. “The Economic Function of the Crusader States of the Levant: a New Approach”, in S. Cavaciocchi, ed., Relazioni economiche tra Europa e mondo islamico. Secc. XIII–XVIII (Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “F. Datini”, Atti delle Settimane di Studi e altri convegni, 38/1), Firenze: Le Monnier, 2007, pp. 159–191
• 5. “Acre-Alexandria: A Major Commercial Axis of the Thirteenth Century”, in Marina Montesano, ed., “Come l’orco della faba”. Studi per Franco Cardini, Firenze: SISMEL/Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2010, pp. 151–167
• 6. “Marco Polo, His Close Relatives, and His Travel Account: Some New Insights”, Mediterranean Historical Review, 21 (2006), pp. 193–218
• 7. “Byzantium, the Italian Maritime Powers, and the Black Sea before 1204”, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 100 (2007), pp. 677–699
• 8. “Mediterranean Food and Wine for Constantinople: The Long¬Distance Trade, Eleventh to Mid-Fifteenth Century”, in Ewald Kislinger, Johannes Koder, Andreas Külzer, eds, Handelsgüter und Verkehrswege. Aspekte der Warenversorgung im östlichen Mittelmeerraum (4. bis 15. Jahrhundert) (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Denkschriften, 388. Band), Wien, 2010, pp. 127–147
• 9. “Rural Exploitation and Market Economy in the Late Medieval Peloponnese”, in Sharon E. J. Gerstel, ed., Viewing the Morea. Land and People in the Late Medieval Peloponnese, Harvard University Press, 2013, pp. 213–275
• 10. “Jews and Christians in Venetian Crete: Segregation, Interaction, and Confict”, in Uwe Israel, Robert Jütte, Reinhold C. Mueller, eds., “Interstizi”: Culture ebraico-cristiane a Venezia e nei suoi domini dal medioevo all’età moderna (Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani, Ricerche 5), Roma: Storia e Letteratura, 2010, pp. 239–279
• Index of Names
• Index of Subjects