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church of S. Giorgio, which had a monopoly in that respect.88 This further
implies trade in grain, among other commodities.
According to the fourteenth-century doge Andrea Dandolo, who relied on
earlier sources, twenty Venetian ships anchoring at Halmyros managed to
escape when the Byzantine authorities arrested the Venetians in the Empire on
12 March 1171.89 This large figure is rather surprising. Since trans-Mediterra-
nean sailings were suspended in the winter months and the navigation season
began in March, these vessels could not have arrived from Venice in the
preceding months.90 A number of them had presumably wintered in Halmyros,
where Venetian settlers engaged in maritime trade with Constantinople.91
Since Venetians shipped cheese and oil from the Byzantine provinces to the
86
L. Lanfranchi (ed.), S. Giorgio Maggiore. Fonti per la Storia di Venezia, Sez. II: Archivi
ecclesiastici. Venezia 1968  1986, II 533  534 no. 276. The Venetian church of S. Maria
was nearby.
87
Miguel Ataleiates, ed. I. PØrez Martin. Nueva Roma, 15. Madrid 2002, 148  150, 178 
180. See also P. Magdalino, The grain supply of Constantinople, ninth-twelfth centuries,
in: Mango/Dagron (as note 54 above) 39  41, 43  45 (repr. in: Magdalino, Studies [as
note 81 above], no. III).
88
The monopoly of S. Giorgio is attested in 1145: Lanfranchi (as note 86 above) II 437 
439 no. 216. However, in 1147 Venetian merchants were refusing to use the weights and
measures of the church: ibid. II 449 451 no. 224.
89
Andreae Danduli Chronica per extensum descripta, ed. E. Pastorello. Rerum
Italicarum Scriptores2 XII/1. Bologna 1938  58, 251 lines 3  4.
90
On the maritime sailing seasons, see J. H. Pryor, Geography, Technology and War.
Studies in the Maritime History of the Mediterranean, 649  1571. Cambridge 1988, 87 
88; U. Tucci, La navigazione veneziana nel duecento e nel primo trecento e la sua
evoluzione tecnica, in: A. Pertusi (ed.), Venezia e il Levante fino al secolo XV. Atti del
Convegno internazionale di storia della civiltà veneziana, Venezia, 1968. Firenze 1973, I/
2 821  842, at 827  829, 831  833. A Venetian statement of 1244 implies sailings from
Constantinople to Venice in March and September: G. L. F. Tafel/G. M. Thomas (eds.),
Urkunden zur älteren Handels- und Staatsgeschichte der Republik Venedig. Wien 1856 
1857, II 423.
91
S. Borsari, Venezia e Bisanzio nel XII secolo. I rapporti economici. Venezia 1988, 91 
93, 96  97; D. Jacoby, Migrations familiales et stratØgies commerciales vØnitiennes aux
XIIe et XIIIe si›cles, in: M. Balard/A. Ducellier (eds.), Migrations et diasporas
mØditerranØennes (Xe  XVIe si›cles). Byzantina Sorbonensia, 19. Paris 2002, 360 361.
D. Jacoby, Byzantium, the Italian maritime powers, and the Black Sea before 1204 695
capital,92 there is good reasonto believe that they also engaged inthe supply of
grain.93 Yet, in addition, it is likely that among the twenty Venetian ships
anchoring at Halmyros in March 1171 some had come from Constantinople
and stopped there to load grain before sailing in convoy to Venice.
Furthermore, one may wonder whether grain was to be taken on board the
three-masted ship of the Venetian Romano Mairano, which escaped from
Constantinople on 12 March 1171, the day on which the Venetians were
arrested throughout the Empire. It was one of the largest vessels sailing in the
Mediterranean at that time, with a carrying capacity exceeding 450 metric tons.
There was no commodity exported from Byzantium to Venice except for grain
that would have enabled a profitable return voyage of such a large ship from
Constantinople.94 It is noteworthy that according to the partition treaty of 1204
Venice s portion of the Empire included two ports that were also major grain
outlets, Thessalonica and Rhaidestos, as well as the emporion of Sagoudaous at
the mouth of the Maritsa River, another grain outlet of lesser importance.95
Twelfth-century Genoa imported grain from several regions. The consuls
Lanfranco Piper and Ansaldo Mallone decreed between 1136 and February
1139 that ships returning from overseas, including from Romania, the
Byzantine region, should pay a tax in kind amounting to one mina of grain
to the Commune, a rule confirmed in 1142. An entry of the following year in
the register of the archbishop of Genoa mentions tithes and taxes imposed
upon vessels returning with grain from overseas regions, among them
Byzantium. In 1147 the archbishop requested such a payment from Bonifacio
de Ranfredo after his naval expedition in that region.96 The Genoese may have
purchased grain in Crete, Macedonia, Thessaly and Thrace.97 Genoese
merchants traded in Halmyros around 1160 and in the 1170s, yet there is no
92
Jacoby, Byzantine Crete (as note 66 above) 521  528.
93
Such grain shipments have already been suggested by Magdalino, The grain supply of
Constantinople (as note 87 above) 45.
94
On the ship and its carrying capacity, see D. Jacoby, The supply of war materials to Egypt [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]