The Economy Of Latin Greece 191
economy, namely, the exercise of crafts and manufacturing, market demand,
as well as the structure, operation and range of trade, transportation, and dis-
tribution patterns.
Regardless of the differing political and legal systems existing in the terri-
tories of Latin Greece, a major change occurred after the Latin conquest in
the legal status and social condition of the Byzantine peasant, called villanus
or villein by the Latins. In feudalised regions the privatisation of state author-
ity turned him into a fully dependent peasant. His hereditary subjection to
the landowner was far more rigorous than in the Byzantine period, and his
legal capacity in the handling of landed property more restricted. He was tied
to the land, was transferred together with it, and the landowner could move
him at will to another location. The villein paid taxes and performed labour
services, or these were commuted into cash payments. Fugitive villeins could
be reclaimed by their landowner. A change in their status required a formal act
of manumission, as for slaves. Venice adopted the same principles and poli-
cies as applied by the Franks with respect to the social and legal status of the
peasantry. However, as Byzantium, it distinguished between villeins subject to
individual landowners and others to the authority of the state. Whatever the
case, their enfranchisement required the state’s approval.
The stability, contraction, and expansion of the workforce were a constant
concern of landowners in all political entities and a top priority of the state
in Venetian territories. The Latin conquest was largely conducted in swift
campaigns that do not seem to have affected the operation of the rural econ-
omy. Later, however, intermittent warfare in the 1270s between Frankish and
Byzantine forces in Euboea must have inflicted some damage upon the coun-
tryside.9 Around the same time piratical raids on some islands of the Aegean
resulted in the abduction of peasants. More severe disruptions in the exploi-
tation of rural resources took place during the 13th- and 14th-century Greek
rebellions in Crete, especially between 1287 and 1299. In all these instances,
though, the disturbances were circumscribed to specific localities or areas of
the island, peasants either fleeing or being moved to new locations in which
they contributed to the extension of cultivation. Land in Latin Greece appears
to have been only temporarily abandoned by peasants and herdsmen as a
result of warfare.
Conditions changed for the worse in several coastal areas and islands of
the Aegean from the early 14th century onward, once the Turks of Asia Minor
began their maritime forays, which occasionally resulted in severe damage and
9 On military operations, see also Michael Angold, “Michael viii Palaiologos and the Aegean,”
in Saint-Guillain and Stathakopoulos, Liquid and Multiple, pp. 33–37.