162 Bresc
Joan Pi was chartered to Joan Servent and also loaded in Sciacca.61 In short,
there were very few cargoes destined for Sardinia, an island that had already
established itself as a major producer of grains, except when the situation was
dire: most likely in 1309, and most certainly in 1376. Cagliari appears to have
been the port of call where shippers could communicate with their country-
men, stopover on the way to Provence, and coordinate the transport of wine
towards Majorca. For large cargoes of grain, the choice of the port of arrival is
made in Barcelona or Porto Pisano. Cagliari was an important base of infor-
mation, but it was primarily a necessary technical stopping point for Catalan
vessels that were coming from Palermo or the Neapolitan kingdom and set-
ting off on the difficult route to Majorca and Barcelona, into the dominant
headwinds.
On the other end of the exchange, the notaries of Palermo documented mas-
sive sales of buckskin in the late fourteenth century. It is not always indicated
that they came from Sardinia, but of the small quantity that was imported up
to 1370, only a few hundred skins could have come from Sicily, where wild ani-
mals are rare. They were also expensive—more than one and a half taris per
leather—but after 1370, their quantities rose considerably and their price fell
by half, which indicates a new influx. The first merchant to import them was
Petrucio Camuxario of Bonifacio, who first brought a relatively small shipment
of Sardinian buckskins to the markets of Palermo in 1381. Subsequent record-
ed sales amounted to 1,410 skins in 1410, 850 in 1416, 500 in 1421, 4,215 in 1436,
776 in 1437, and 1,004 in 1439. They were sold through the Catalan merchants
Calzeran de Aquilo, Felip Amalrik, and Benet Corquo, who would distribute
them throughout Sicily.62 Their price increased significantly, first about one
tari per piece, then two taris, and two and a half taris, which was a sign of the
increasing demand by Sicilian leatherworkers, who formed small cooperative
societies that purchased the skins in Palermo.
For the most part, merchandise traveled on Catalan vessels: in 1429, there
were 19 Catalan vessels in Alghero, including one that was armed, with an-
other in Cagliari, one Galician boat from Vivero, and one Basque, for two
Pisan vessels, two Genoese, two Sicilian barques, one Venetian transport,
and one vessel from Gaète. This number had little to do with the conquest of
Sardinia, because as early as 1299, it was a Catalan ferry that brought tallow
to Cagliari.
61 ASP ND A. Aprea (3 August 1444).
62 Bresc, Un Monde méditerranéen, p. 513.