The commercial history of Trebizond and the region of Pontos from the seventh to the eleventh centuries: an international emporium (original) (raw)
Proceedings of the Plenary Sessions of the 24th International Congress of Byzantine Studies edited by Emiliano Fiori and Michele Trizio, 2022
Building upon the anthropological studies, I would like to put forward a fresh outlook on the nature of Byzantium’s foreign exchanges in the example of the ByzantineNear Eastern relations from the 7th to the 11th centuries. Examining the types of objects/ people/information exchanged (i.e. diplomats, merchants, booty, gifts, military technology etc.) and the ways they moved through different modes of exchange (commerce, plunder etc.) critically and comparatively would help every Byzantinist elucidate areas that are less well understood, such as commercial exchanges; it also makes us aware of the fact that the categories presented above are ideal types, and that objects and people had multiple and changing identities while different modes occasionally coalesced.
Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 2022
The city of Melitene in eastern Asia Minor/western Armenia presents a peculiar case in the study of Byzantine-Islamic commerce in the early Middle Ages, because, unlike Trebizond or Attaleia, its commerce was entirely based on land-route connections, and the available evidence does not identify it as a town deliberately designated as a commercial exchange point by the Byzantine authorities. My purpose is to find an answer to the question of how Byzantine-Islamic trade took place in a location on the eastern land frontier where the coexistence of war and trade was a daily reality. The products and export items as well as the routes of the Melitene zone and its neighboring regions (Cappadocia, Pontos, Armenia) are examined in order to situate Melitene in a larger commercial context. I argue that Melitene prospered commercially in the middle of war zone for centuries and that its commercial fortunes began to improve especially by the beginning of the tenth century, reaching their climax in the eleventh century.
Byzantine maritime trade, 1025-1118
Only one study on Byzantine maritime trade covering the eleventh and early twelfth century has appeared in the last twenty years or so. 1 This is rather surprising, given the vital role of maritime trade in the empire's economy, its significant evolution in that period, and important archeological discoveries providing new insights into its workings. Two facets of Byzantine maritime trade deserve our attention: firstly, its modes of operation, as well as the macro-and micro-economic domestic contexts in which it evolved; secondly, these same aspects in trade and shipping conducted by the empire's subjects in foreign waters. The first facet is at best mentioned in passing in studies dealing with the empire's ports, ships, itineraries, trade, or economy in the years 1025-118. 2 The second facet is largely overlooked, since it is still widely assumed, based upon Byzantine literary sources, that the Byzantines were reluctant to travel, feared the sea, were devoid of enterprising spirit, and awaited foreigners to supply them with the goods they needed. 3 These stereotypes were common among the Byzantine social élite and authors identifying with its values and attitudes or presenting them in their writings. However, despite 16. D. Jacoby, What do we learn about Byzantine Asia Minor from the documents of the Cairo Genizah?, in Η Βυζαντινή Μικρά Ασία : 6ος-12ος αι. = Byzantine Asia Minor : 6 th -12 th cent., [eds. N. Oikonomides and S. Vryonis, Jr.], Αθήνα 1998, pp. 83-91, repr. in Jacoby, Byzantium, Latin Romania and the Mediterranean (quoted n. 9), no. I, here pp. 84-6. 17. Jacoby, Silk in Western Byzantium (quoted n. 13), p. 475. 18. B. Pitarakis, Les croix-reliquaires pectorales byzantines en bronze, Paris 2006. 19. On the management of large domains and accounting, see J. Lefort, The rural economy, in EHB 1, pp. 231-310, here pp. 295-9; K. Smyrlis, La fortune des grands monastères fin du x e -milieu du xiv e siècle, Paris 2006, pp. 234-43; M. Kaplan, L'économie du monastère de la Kosmosôteira fondé par Isaac Comnène d'après le typikon