Pictures from a Byzantian Province

Merchants and Trade in the Paleologs Period

Abstract

Until now unknovvn documents for economic history — notes on incomings, outgoings and goods — which the author discovered among the manuscripts in the Vatican Library, correct the hitherto image of the Late Byzantine economy and simultaneously enlighten the conditions in the province. Exclusively Greeks participated in the internal trade; the currency was mainly of West origin, the Byzantian money had a subordinate role. In the texts mainly alimentary products are quoted; in this respect no such deficiency of the mentioned as often presumed — prevailed. As a whole — these new documents give a positive picture of the Late Byzantine economy and bring new information on prices, weights and measures and on social status of merchants.