264 luciano pezzolo
Trade between Growth and ChangeDespite the lack of quantitative data, most scholars claim that in the 15th
and 16th centuries Venice maintained, and possibly reinforced, its pre-
eminent role in commercial exchange between the West and the Levant.
Between 1414 and 1431, the galleys heading for Beirut and Alexandria car-
ried merchandise and precious metals of an annual value of 12 tons of
silver, to which were added another five tons in the cocche (round trans-
port ships) destined for Syria. The average annual investment in the gal-
leys for Syria alone amounted to 17 tons in the two decades between 1449
and 1468. It could be argued, though based on information that are not
always coherent, that towards the end of the 15th century the exchange
value between Venice and the Levant was in the range of 25 tons of sil-
ver (with a probable increase compared to the beginning of the century).
In 1558–60, the Venetian representative in Constantinople claimed the
overall value of this trade to be roughly 125 tons of silver. At the end of
the century, Venetian commerce in Aleppo alone, one of the most impor-
tant Levantine markets, amounted to more than 50 tons of silver, while
the English and French took equal parts of a further 25 tons.19 The data,
albeit rough, indicate that trade between the West and the Levant grew
notably despite the demographic stagnation in 15th-century Europe. It
is likely that continental demand was sustained by the rather elevated
real incomes that allowed for an increase in demand for luxury goods.
In the 16th century, though, despite the fall in real incomes, demand was
sustained by a significant demographic growth together with the fall in
the real prices of eastern spices. In any case, the expansion of the spice
market developed through Venice’s intermediary role. Compared to the
previous century, though, beginning in the 1570s Venice was joined in the
19 The data that I converted into silver for the 15th century are taken from Alan M.
Stahl, “European Minting and the Balance of Payments with the Islamic World in the Later
Middle Ages,” in Simonetta Cavaciocchi, ed., Relazioni economiche tra Europa e mondo
islamico, secc. XIII–XVIII, 2 vols (Florence, 2007), 2:895–96; Eliyahu Ashtor, Levant Trade in
the Later Middle Ages (Princeton, 1983), pp. 470–78; Francisco J. Apellániz, “Crise financière
et rapports internationaux en Méditerranée: la faillité des corporations éuropéennes dans
le sultanat mamelouk (1450–1517),” in Cavaciocchi, ed., Relazioni economiche tra Europa
e mondo islamico, 2:621–22; and for the 16th century, see Bruno Simon, “Contribution à
l’étude du commerce vénitien dans l’empire ottoman au milieu du XVIe siècle (1558–1560),”
Mélanges de l’Ecole française de Rome 96 (1984), 978; and Michel Fontenay, “Le commerce
des Occidentaux dans les echelles du Levant au XVIIe siècle,” in Cavaciocchi, ed., Relazioni
economiche tra Europa e mondo islamico, 2:524.