88 dominique valérian
between the three areas, as in the case of the commenda (Udovitch, 1962). They
relied mainly on the mutual recognition of the value of the written document, regard-
less of the language used or of the public authority (notary or cadi) that had validated
it (Valérian, 2009). Finally, these exchanges were made possible by values such as
trust, common to the mercantile world and which went beyond the religious or polit-
ical divisions. The movement of men as well as investments required minimum guar-
antees of the security of people and goods. These guarantees were given by the
definition of the legal status of the foreigner, on the strictly political basis of peace
treaties, which insisted on their protection. This legal framework finally allowed the
organization of the communities of merchants in port cities, grouped by nationes in
fondacos, and under the political authority of their consul (Constable, 2003).
Ultimately, these rules aimed at regulating violence, on sea as well as in the ports,
by defining the boundaries between legal violence (against enemies, that is, those not
protected by a peace treaty) and illegal violence. Indeed, treaties protected ships and
merchants from the dangers of pirates or the arbitrariness of local authorities. But it
was even more important to keep a single incident from leading to an uncontrollable
cycle of retaliation and to a breach of the peace. To that purpose, the rulers themselves
undertook to find and condemn any of their subjects or citizens found guilty of vio-
lence and theft against foreigners and to act against piracy, which eventually led, at the
end of the Middle Ages, to the distinction between (legal) privateering and (illegal)
piracy. Finally, in order to end wars, arrangements were gradually developed for the
resolution of private conflicts (including redemption of captives), while an improve-
ment of mutual knowledge of political practices facilitated the success of embassies
and negotiations (Salicru i Lluch, 2005).
ConclusionEven if considered merely an academic division of Mediterranean history, the Middle
Ages also had some unique characteristics in comparison with the Roman or modern
periods. After the difficulties of the late Roman and early Byzantine Empire, the
Muslim conquest contributed to the end of Mediterranean unity, revivifying the sea’s
status as disputed maritime space. Thus the Middle Ages are the time, if not of the
recovery of political or religious unity, at least of the reconstruction, on completely
new bases, of networks and relationships between the different parts of the
Mediterranean, or at least the most dynamic of them.
In a first phase, this recovery took place mainly within the homogenous and
spatially limited framework of the Byzantine and Muslim Empires, with the devel-
opment of maritime trade in the ninth and, especially, tenth centuries. Then, in
the eleventh and twelfth centuries, with the political, military and economic
expansion of western Europe (stimulated by the dynamism of Latin merchants
from Italy, Provence, the Iberian Peninsula, and the rest of Europe as well), the
Mediterranean became the center of complex networks connecting very remote
economic spaces. This activity permitted an intensification of the commercial
relations between different ports, but also led to a permanent state of war and
competition between regional powers over control of the shores and maritime
routes. The multiplication of contacts, peaceful and otherwise, demanded the
invention of new rules that all the actors in the Mediterranean could accept and