160 Bresc
8 Commercial Relations: An Insular Emporium?
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Sardinia and Sicily served as distribution
warehouses for shippers. At the end of the Fatimid era, Sardinian and Sicilian
merchants received preferential treatment in Egyptian ports, but Majorca
remained the primary gateway to the Maghreb through the fourteenth
century.46 Its proximity to the African coast and favorable location in relation
to the prevailing winds made it a more desirable destination for intra-Mediter-
ranean trade. Sardinia and Sicily also lacked the fleets of heavy cargo vessels
necessitated by such long-distance travel. Indeed, the geographic location of
the islands was further a handicap in that Sicilian barques could easily reach
Calabria and Tunisia, but it was difficult for them to sail upwind to Sardinia.
Thus the Catalan and Genoese vessels outmatched those of Sardinia and Sicily,
and earned those merchants control of sea traffic in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
If Sicily had been more integrated into the Angevin kingdom, other rela-
tions might have developed between it, Sardinia, and Corsica. In 1272, Sardinia
was a stop on the route between Provence and Palermo, but the axis between
Provence and Sicily was interrupted in 1282 and such trade ceased. Marseilles
did maintain relations with Alghero, which enabled some contacts with
Palermo to be renewed around 1410.47
The three-way commerce in Sicilian and Calabrian wines, operated by
Majorcan ships, frequently included Cagliari amongst other ports of call.48
Sardinia lacked a wine-producing “niche” market and thus relied on the spe-
cialized viniculture of the Sicilian and Calabrian coasts. Other contracts dem-
onstrate that Cagliari could be supplied by Palermo with products that one
might otherwise expect to be widely available on the Sardinian market, but
perhaps were not, as a result of the wars on the islands. In 1299, a Catalan
boat carried ten and a half cantari of tallow destined for Cagliari;49 in 1309,
another Catalan boat loaded 90 cantari of cheese and 60 cantari of almonds
sent to Cagliari by two Jewish merchants—Bonaccorso Fattasi of Messina and
46 Claude Cahen, Makhzûmiyyât: études sur l’histoire économique et financière de l’Égypte
médiévale (Leiden, 1977).
47 Riccardo Filangeri, ed., I registri della Cancelleria angioina ricostruiti con la collabora-
zione degli archivisti napoletani (Naples, 1957), 246 ( June 1272); ASP Protonotaro 5, f. 176v
(Cagliari, 6 December 1409).
48 ASP Biblioteca Manoscritti Notaio B. Citella 127b (21 and 26 April 1309; ASP ND R. Citella
Spezzone 89 (16 September 1327); ASP ND S. Amato Spezzone 20N (14 May 1351); ASP ND
B. Bononia Spezzone 101.
49 Pietro Gulotta, ed., Le imbreviature del notaio Adamo de Citella a Palermo (2° Registro:
1299–1299) (Rome, 1982), p. 273, n. 351 (12 April 1299).