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

Abstract

This chapter 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. The Venetians imported silks from Byzantium and Syria-Lebanon, and costly furs from the Black Sea region and Dalmatia. 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. The Venetian integration within the internal trade and transportation networks of Byzantium is also illustrated with respect to silk textiles. The chrysobull of 1082 issued by Alexios I granted freedom of trade and tax exemption to the Venetians throughout the Empire, yet nevertheless mentions 30 cities and two islands.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 38 citations exist upstream.