186 Jacoby
abundant sources illustrating their economy: the centralised Venetian empire
and the Frankish Principality of the Morea in the Peloponnese. Venice laid the
foundations of its maritime empire in 1207, when it began the conquest
of Crete and occupied Coron and Modon, two ports in the south-western
Peloponnese. In 1211 it obtained property in the main city of Euboea, Euripos,
called Negroponte by the Latins, a name also used for the island itself. Venice
gradually extended its property in the city in the following years, and by 1256
had managed to merge its scattered urban possessions into a compact quar-
ter enjoying an exterritorial status. A second stage of Venetian expansion took
place in the last decades of the 14th century, when Venice extended its domina-
tion over the whole of Euboea, several cities and lordships in the Peloponnese,
some islands of the Aegean, and Corfu.
In the Venetian territories conquered in the early 13th century the state
retained the ownership of the land, even after granting it to individuals. In addi-
tion, Venice strictly maintained the public nature of judicial and fiscal author-
ity as exclusive prerogatives of the state, like Byzantium. Estates remaining in
the hands of some Greek archons, members of the local Greek elite, enjoyed a
different status. Venice also displayed flexibility by respecting legal custom in
the territories it annexed in the Peloponnese and in the Aegean in the second
half of the 14th century.
The Principality of the Morea was the largest among the lordships cre-
ated in non-Venetian territories. Vassalage and fiefs entailing military ser-
vice provided the backbone of its social hierarchy and political structure.
Judicial and legislative authority and the right of taxation were privatised,
yet only higher and middle-ranking noblemen exercised them. The return
of Byzantium to the Peloponnese in 1262 compelled Prince William ii de
Villehardouin to seek the support of King Charles i of Sicily, who extended
his rule over the Frankish Morea after the prince’s death in 1278. The direct
and indirect domination of the king’s successors over the principality, which
continued for more than a whole century, affected only marginally its political
regime. Other non-Venetian lordships adopted similar feudal or quasi-feudal
institutions. The impact of the differing political and institutional superstruc-
tures upon the economy of the political entities will be examined below in
due course.
Latin Settlement and the Redistribution of Resources
Two intertwined processes promptly followed the Latin conquest, wherever it
took place: first, Latin immigration and settlement; secondly, the confiscation