When a greater stability in the Mediterranean allowed for a resurgence in wider trade networks from the 10th century CE, it would be the Italian states which seized the opportunity to reap profit from the transport and sale of goods from one end of the known world to the other.Trade was carried out by ship over vast distances, although for safety, most sailing vessels were restricted to the better weather conditions between April and October.On land, the old Roman road system was put to good use, and so by these two means goods travelled from one end of the empire to the other, as well as from far-away places such as modern-day Afghanistan, Russia, and Ethiopia.The bigger cities had thriving cosmopolitan markets, and Constantinople became one of the largest trading hubs in the world where shoppers could stroll down covered streets and pick up anything from Bulgarian linen to Arabian perfumes.
For example, emperor Theophilos (r. This attitude may explain why Byzantine chroniclers often avoid the subject entirely. Indeed, in Byzantine art and literature, traders, merchants, bankers and money-lenders who had tried to cheat their clients were often portrayed as inhabiting the lower levels of Hell. Emperors, therefore, were often particular in enforcing such matters as the standardisation of weights and measures, and, of course, prices. Heavy goods were scrupulously weighed using steelyards and weights in the form of a bust of either the emperor or the goddess Minerva Athena. Smaller goods such as spices were measured out using a balance with weights made of copper -alloy or glass. To minimise cheating, weights were inscribed with their representative weight or equivalent value in gold coinage and regularly checked. Unlike in earlier times, the state played a greater role in trade and the provisioning of major cities, for example, which was rarely left to private traders. Duty on imported goods was collected by state-appointed officials known as kommerkiarioi who collected duties on all commercial transactions and who issued an official lead seal once goods had been through the system. There must have been a good deal of smuggling but measures were taken to counter it such as a 6th-century CE treaty between the Byzantines and Sassanids which stipulated that all traded goods must pass through official customs posts. Records were scrupulously kept, too, most famously the Book of the Prefect in Constantinople, which also outlined the rules for trade and trade guilds in the city. The Rhodian Sea Law (7th or 8th century CE) stipulated that, in such a case, merchants received a fixed compensation. The state also ensured that no goods useful to an enemy were permitted to be exported - gold, salt, timber for ships, iron for weapons, and Greek Fire (the secret Byzantine weapon of highly inflammable liquid). Neither was the prestigious silk dyed with Tyrian purple permitted for sale abroad. Copper, silver, and gold coins were minted and issued carrying images of emperors, their heirs, the Cross, Jesus Christ, or other images related to the Church. Although the state minted coins primarily for the purpose of paying armies and officials, the coinage did filter down and through all levels of society. Coinage - in the form of the standard gold nomisma ( solidus ) coin - was also necessary to pay ones annual taxes. When there were fewer wars and so fewer soldiers and suppliers to pay for or when the tentacles of the local state bureaucracy declined in the 7th and 8th century CE, coins could become scarce and barter had to be resorted to in the provinces, especially. Cities, too, were in decline and ever-more self-sufficient while shipping became increasingly the domain of private traders.
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