Byzantine merchants: cities and products

any cities of the late Byzantine state developed commercial activities and a number of them acquired important privileges as a result. The cities were the markets where local agricultural and manufactured products were bought and sold, and also constituted import and export centres and functioned as transit stations for luxury goods and raw materials. It should be mentioned that trading operations were often seriously hampered by the activity of pirates. Among the most important cities at this time were Constantinople, Crete, Ioannina, Arta, Nafpaktos, Thessalonike, Chios, Smyrna, Adrianople, Mistra and Monemvasia. Constantinople, for instance, was one of the foremost centres for the transportation of wheat from the Black Sea and retained its importance as a transit station until the middle of the 15th century. Monemvasia also eventually developed into a large transit post, becoming one of the leading commercial centres in the Peloponnese and the most important port in the eastern Mediterranean. In the Despotate of Epiros, the city of Ioannina, particularly, displayed considerable commercial activity, closely connected to the production of the region.

It was mainly agricultural products that were the object of trading activity: wheat and cereals in general, olive oil, wine, fruit, salt, animal products, fish, and sugar from Cyprus constituted the main bulk of the commmodities traded. Raw materials, such as cotton, silk, wax, aluminium and lead, were also dealt in by the Byzantine and international traders. The exporting of wheat, mostly to the West, which was not self-sufficient in this grain, continued until the middle of the 14th century, while later, in times of crisis, the Byzantine merchants became importers of wheat as well. The main products imported from the West were textiles of all kinds, soap, as well as metalwork. Many places functioned as transit stations for luxury goods such as silks and spices from the Far and Middle East.