Commercial Exchange Across the Mediterranean

The customary treatment of Mediterranean trade from the 11th to the mid-15th century emphasizes the predominance of western merchants and the commercial exchange of spices and eastern raw materials for western woollens and other finished products. The studies in this collection, the sixth by David Jacoby to be published in the Variorum series, adopt a different perspective. They underscore the economic vitality of various countries bordering the eastern Mediterranean, their industrial capacity, the importance of exchanges between them, and the important contribution of the merchants based in that region to trans-Mediterranean trade. They also illustrate the role of hitherto neglected commodities, such as timber, iron, silk and cheese, in that trade.

David Jacoby is an Emeritus Professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Contents: Preface; Byzantine trade with Egypt from the mid-10th century to the Fourth Crusade; The supply of war materials to Egypt in the crusader period; The Venetian quarter of Constantinople from 1082 to 1261: topographical considerations; The trade of crusader Acre in the Levantine context: an overview; The Venetian privileges in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem: 12th and 13th-century interpretations and implementation; Migration, trade and banking in crusader Acre; Creta e Venezia nel contesto economico del Mediterraneo orientale sino alla metà del Quattrocento; Cretan cheese: a neglected aspect of Venetian medieval trade; Changing economic patterns in Latin Romania: the impact of the West; Dalla materia prima ai drappi tra Bisanzio, il Levante e Venezia: la prima fase dell'industria serica veneziana; Genoa, silk trade and silk manufacture in the Mediterranean region (ca. 1100-1300); The production of silk textiles in Latin Greece; Addenda et corrigenda; Indexes.