The Economy Of Latin Greece 193
or permanent tax exemptions and even land and housing, in order to enlarge
the workforce in their estates. The continuous quest and fierce competition for
labour, common to all the territories of Latin Greece, intensified in the period
of demographic contraction following the Black Death. Mobility enlarging the
rural workforce was backed by the rulers of political entities and by Venice.
From 1312 to 1322 the emperors Andronikos ii and Michael ix allowed the set-
tlement of peasants from Latin and other foreign territories in the Byzantine
Morea and granted them tax exemptions. In 1396 the prince of Frankish Morea
requested the return of peasants who had moved from the principality to the
Venetian territories of Coron and Modon, and three years later Venice took
measures to convince the villeins of Argos who had fled the Turkish forces in
1397 to return from neighbouring Byzantine and Frankish territories. The terri-
torial fragmentation in continental Greece encouraged greater mobility in the
proximity of political boundaries. Once peasants crossed these boundaries,
the lengthy diplomatic negotiations between political entities that followed
enhanced their chances to evade return or to obtain concessions from their
landowners. Despite the Greek rebellions mentioned above, Crete appears to
have enjoyed a greater stability of rural labour than the Peloponnese or the
Aegean islands. Some peasants managed to leave Crete, yet most of them
moved within the island.
The Rural Economy: Patterns of Market-Oriented Exploitation
The fragmentation and redistribution of large estates in favour of the Latins
throughout Latin Greece soon after the conquest did not alter the nature of the
rural economy, although they affected its operation, examined below.10 In the
short term the remaining Greek archons and the new Latin landowners as well
as the peasantry were eager to ensure a smooth transition from Byzantine to
Frankish or Venetian rule. The preservation of the Byzantine economic infra-
structure in the countryside and the continuity of its exploitation were vital for
the peasants’ subsistence, whereas the primary concern of the Frankish lords
and Venice was the rapid resumption of tax collection, indispensable for the
consolidation of their rule. Continuity in rural exploitation was furthered by
the integration of Greeks at various levels of the Venetian and non-Venetian
administrations established soon after the conquest, as chancery scribes, sur-
veyors, customs agents, or in other capacities. They were familiar with local
10 For this section, see Jacoby, “Italian Migration”; idem, “Changing Economic Patterns”;
idem, “Rural Exploitation”.