The Economic History of Byzantium From

For instance, the documentation for the sale of pottery made in Valencia (Spain) and its hinterland in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is exceptionally rich. Contracts drawn up before a notary tell us about the professional merchants who bought part or all of a potter’s production and ensured its distribution by selling it in markets, which could sometimes be far from the production center, as in the case of Narbonne or Majorca. These merchants would also preempt vases that had yet to be made—and a client might even supply some of the primary materials (lead and tin) that were required to complete his order, as stipulated in a document dated 26 March 132588— or he might pay the potter a deposit. The client could also be a company of merchants and bankers.89 Buyers frequently appear in connection with the textile industry—in the West at any rate. Cloth merchants and tailors made contracts with potters; for instance, the merchants of Narbonne who traveled to Valencia to sell their textiles went home, once their business was concluded, loaded with consignments of Manises dishes. A note of purchase by a tailor of a potter’s entire production for a year shows that this man was engaged in two lines of trade: tailoring and selling pottery. This entry is evidence of the way trade routes in the textile industry were used to sell the pottery products of the region, rather than simply showing that the traders were keen to avoid returning home with empty holds.90

In the case of Byzantium, little is known about the traffic in pottery products, and the details of this trade remain obscure. Very few, if indeed any, written documents appear to have survived from any period. Among all the corporations listed in the Book of the Eparch, there is nothing about potters; details about the way markets were organized and artisans installed contain no reference to traders in pottery. This silence extends to the documents relating to commercial transactions, notarial acts, and household inventories, although we know that such documents exist in the case of pottery production in neighboring lands, which could sometimes be very close to the Byzantine world in terms of either geography or quality and appearance. For instance, in the thirteenth century, the droitures of the Acre Fonde include pottery among the list of products traded locally: it was subject to taxation, more heavily in the case of exports (25% of the value) and less so for imports (8.3%). In Beirut, on the other hand, the privileges granted to the Genoese in 1223 included an exemption from commercial franchise for the labours de poterie.91 Al-Makhzumi’s Minhadj, a fiscal treatise from the

88P. Lopez Elum, “Origen y evolucion de dos grandes centros ceramicos: Manises y Paterna,” in

La ceramica medievale nel Mediterraneo occidentale, Siena 8–12 ottobre 1984, Faenza 13 ottobre 1984 (Florence, 1986), 167.

89See the order for 256 vases, placed with the potter Asmet Zuleima of Manises in December 1401, by the Datini merchant company, which was active in Valencia from the end of the 14th century, on behalf of another large Italian commercial company, the Florentine company of Zanobi Gaddi and Antonio di ser Bartolomeo: M. Spallanzani, “Un invio di Maioliche ispano-moresche a Venezia negli anni 1401–1402,” Archeologia medievale 5 (1978): 529–41.

90Lopez Elum, “Origen,” 167.

91J. Richard, “Colonies marchandes privilegie´es et marche´ seigneurial: La fonde d’Acre et ses droitures,” Le Moyen Age 60 (1953): 330–31.

608 FRANC¸OIS AND SPIESER

Fatimid-Ayyubid period, mentions imports of pottery to Tinnis.92 The Cairo Geniza documents are full of information about prices. Humble marriage contracts in particular stipulate the prices of certain household items, including pottery—vases, jars, plates, large bowls—which formed part of the dowry.93 The Geniza documents also provide valuable information about different kinds of potters and their different methods, which are evidence of specialized production.94 Finally, a charter drawn up in March 1168 between William II, king of Sicily, and a Benedictine abbey lists the items sent from Messina to a monastery in Jerusalem and mentions fifty scutellas that were exempt from taxation.95

Despite these lacunae in Byzantine documents, archaeological discoveries have shown that the exchange and circulation of pottery products was in fact very complex. Three levels can be distinguished with certainty. First, there were regular and quantitatively important exchanges that constituted a real market and probably followed trade routes used by other sorts of merchandise. The evidence for this is found in shipwrecks. This level involves only quality pottery that was to some extent standardized. Second, there were regular exchanges on a regional scale, with one center supplying a region’s pottery requirements (though it is still not possible to give a precise definition of “region”). Finally, there was a medley of intermediary, secondary, marginal, and intermittent currents that ensured the circulation of medium or small quantities of vases. It is in this context that the presence of small numbers of vases far from their centers of production may be explained by looking at customs on board ship. For instance, in the Mediterranean, unless the captain had contracted to feed his passengers, they, whether pilgrim, merchant, or Crusader, would each have to buy all sorts of supplies and comforts prior to embarkation. These objects then belonged to the passenger in question, who would renew his supplies at every port of call. Accounts of such journeys provide valuable information about these purchases; Brother Niccolo da Poggibonsi, who traveled from Venice to the Holy Land in 1346, wrote that “tutti gli storigli si rompano” during a storm, which implies that all his containers were indeed made of clay;96 two other Italians en route to the Holy Land wrote in their account of their travels that, prior to embarking at Venice on 4 September 1384, they bought a mattress, a good bottle of malmsey, a little chest in which to store the Bible and Gospels, some silver cups, and some plates;97 and Giovanni Livi, in his book Dall’archivio di

92C. Cahen, “Douanes et commerce dans les ports me´diterrane´ens de l’Egypte me´die´vale d’apre`s le Minhadj d’Al-Makhzumi,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 7 (1964): 227.

93E. Ashtor, “Mate´riaux pour l’histoire des prix dans l’Egypte me´die´vale,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 6 (1963): 177–79.

94S. D. Goitein, “The Main Industries of the Mediterranean Area as Reflected in the Records of the Cairo Geniza,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 4 (1961): 188–89.

95D. Pringle, “Pottery as Evidence for Trade in the Crusader States,” in I comuni italiani nel regno crociato di Gerusalemme, ed. G. Airaldi and B. Z. Kedar (Genoa, 1986), 470.

96Viaggio da Venezia a Gerusalemme di Fr. Niccolo da Poggibonsi, ed. F. Zambrini (Bologna, 1872).

97Viaggio in Terra Santa, da Frescobaldi Lionello, 1384–1405, ed. C. Angelini (Florence, 1944).

Francesco Datini mercante pratese (1335–1410), lists “richardo di tutte quelle chose che si fanno bisogno per il mare: una cassa mezzana di legno, tre orciuoli grandi, sei scodelle, due catinelle, due pentole invetriate, due tazze di stagno, dodici bicchieri di vestro, sei taglieri.” Thus the purchase of pottery vessels in the port of departure may well have contributed to the circulation of pottery products without involving any maritime trade as such.

Byzantine Weights

Christopher Entwistle

Metrology

The metrological system employed throughout most of the Byzantine period was a duodecimal one. The linchpin of this system was the Byzantine pound or litra, derived from the late Roman pound. The litra was divided into 12 ounces, the ounce into multiples of the scripulum, the smallest unit of the libral system. The litra was also divisible into 72 solidi: the solidus, later known as the nomisma, was the standard gold coin introduced by Constantine the Great in 309, which was to retain its weight and fineness well into the tenth century. Imperial legislation of the fourth century records that 72 solidi were struck to the pound. The theoretical weight of the solidus is generally taken by numismatists to be 4.55 g, thus giving a theoretical weight for the late Roman/early Byzantine pound of 327.60 g. These figures should be treated with caution. Not only is it clear that the weight of the solidus, and hence the pound, fluctuated, but it is also extremely unlikely that an administrative system of sufficient complexity existed to impose a standard weight system throughout the vast expanse of the late Roman Empire. In a recent study of Byzantine metrology, based on the weights of surviving coins, the following figures for the pound during the late Roman and Byzantine eras are proposed: about 324 g from the fourth to the sixth century, 322 g in the sixth and seventh centuries, 320 g from the seventh to the ninth century, 319 g between the ninth and the beginning of the thirteenth century, and subsequently declining below 319 g.1 On the evidence of surviving weights, at least for the fourth to the seventh centuries, these figures should also be treated with skepticism.2

1E. Schilbach, Byzantinische Metrologie (Munich, 1970), 166–68. On weights, cf. S. Bendall, Byzantine Weights: An Introduction (London, 1996).

2The British Museum possesses thirteen 1 pound weights dating from between the 3d and 7th centuries. These weigh, respectively, 323.76 g, 323.71 g, 322.53 g, 322.10 g, 321.80 g, 321.71 g, 319.90 g, 318.11 g, 315.92 g, 311.20 g, 309.14 g, 301.15 g, and 300.63 g. In some instances, these weights have lost their inlays or are damaged in other respects. Most, however, are in an excellent state of preservation, and their deviation from a theoretical weight for the late Roman pound of between 324 g and 327 g cannot be explained by their condition alone. The metrological evidence supplied by these and other pound weights strongly suggests the existence of local weight standards.

612 CHRISTOPHER ENTWISTLE

Administration

The administration of weights and measures devolved to a number of officials. Chapter 15 of Novel 128 of Justinian states that the praetorian prefect and the eparch of the city were responsible for commodity weights and the comes sacrorum largitionum for coinage weights of gold, silver, or bronze. It has recently been argued that the importance of the latter official declined considerably during the sixth century and his responsibilities were subsumed by the eparch of Constantinople.3 This official was certainly responsible for the issuance of glass weights during the sixth and seventh centuries, and, by the ninth century, according to the Book of the Eparch, his control of all forms of weights and measures in the capital was absolute.4 In reality, as the inscriptions on surviving weights indicate, other officials not mentioned in imperial legislation also issued weights. In the western half of the empire these included various proconsuls, viri laudabiles and viri clarissimi; in the East the titles anthypatos, comes, and ephoros have been recorded.

Typology and Chronology

Three materials were commonly employed in the manufacture of Byzantine commodity and coinage weights: bronze, glass, and lead. In very rare instances, gold and silver were also used (Fig. 1). Copper-alloy weights take three main forms: a flattened sphere doubly truncated, a square, or a disk; occasionally octagonal or polygonal examples have survived. The very limited archaeological and epigraphical evidence suggests the following tenuous typological chronology. From the beginning of the third to the end of the fifth century, weights in the form of a truncated sphere were the dominant type (Fig. 2). These were derived from earlier Roman lead and stone examples, and nearly all bear the omicron/upsilon () abbreviation for the ounce. Although the use of the gamma/omicron () as an uncial abbreviation is known as early as the first century, it does not become the standard abbreviation until its appearance on square weights during the course of the fourth century. The square type appears to have been the dominant form until the latter half of the sixth century, when the discoid type gradually superseded it. Finds from such sites as Yassı Ada, Beth Shean, Mafraq, and San Vincenzo al Volturno, suggest that the discoid type was predominant from the seventh to the early ninth century (Fig. 3).5 If the suggested chronology at Corinth is correct—

That these existed in the Roman period at least is proved by weights with inscriptions explicitly stating that they belonged to a local system. A. Kushnir-Stein, “Two Inscribed Weights from Banias,” IEJ 45.1 (1995): 48–51.

3D. Feissel, “Le pre´fet de Constantinople, les poids-´etalons et l’estampillage de l’argenterie au VIe et au VIIe sie`cle,” RN 28 (1986): 119–42.

4J. Nicole, ed., The Book of the Eparch (London, 1970), 32, 45, 47, 48, and 56.

5For Yassı Ada, see G. F. Bass and F. H. van Doorninck, Jr., Yassı Ada, vol. 1, A Seventh-Century Byzantine Shipwreck (College Station, Texas, 1982), 203, fig. 10-2; the weights from Beth Shean in

8. Four silver inlaid copper-alloy weights with imperial figures. Probably Constantinople, late 4th–5th century. British Museum, Medieval and Later Antiquities 1863, 12–28, 1; 1980, 6–1, 2, 3 and 5