204 Jacoby
14th century in the feudal lordships of the Frankish Morea was taken over by
Venice when it got hold of Nauplion in 1389 and Argos in 1394.
There is good reason to believe that the two-tier purchase monopoly had
been inherited from Byzantium, since it is also attested in the Byzantine Morea
for acorn-cups and kermes.32 Found without investment in cultivation, both
were collected for industrial use. Tannin-rich acorn-cups, called valania by
westeners, served as tanning and dyeing agents. Kermes (coccum ilicis L.), called
grana by westeners, yielded a high-quality, solid vermilion dyestuff obtained
from the pregnant female kermes parasite, once it was dried and crushed. The
parasite settles on the holly oak, an arborescent bush common practically in
the entire Peloponnese, as well as in Boeotia and Euboea. The collection of
kermes called for a substantial input of labour, the substance was available in
limited quantities, and it was in high demand in western textile manufacturing
centres. We do not know whether the purchase monopoly also existed in the
islands of Cerigo and Cephalonia, both of which exported kermes.33
Monetisation in the Rural Economy
It has been suggested that Italian trade contributed to a monetisation of the
economy in the 12th-century southern Peloponnese, in a more advanced form
than in other Byzantine provinces.34 The extent of this process remains an
open question in the absence of adequate evidence. The documentation for
Latin Greece in the post-conquest period is far richer. The firm insertion of
the region within the Eastern Mediterranean trading system contributed to the
infusion of liquid capital into the economy of Latin Greece, including into its
rural sector. The Florentine mercantile and banking companies of the Bardi,
Peruzzi and Acciaiuoli and some Sienese companies engaged in exports and
in the transfer of funds financing warfare and conspicuous consumption until
the mid-14th century. Glarenza, Corinth, Thebes and Negroponte functioned
as financial markets, and individual Venetian and Greek bankers operated in
Coron and Modon.35 There were no banking companies operating in Crete.
32 Jacoby, “Rural Exploitation,” pp. 257–60, 263–67.
33 For which see Jacoby, “Changing Economic Patterns,” p. 225.
34 Cécile Morrisson, “L’ouverture des marchés après 1204: Un aspect positif de la ive crois-
ade?,” in Laiou, Urbs Capta, pp. 219–20.
35 See Jacoby, “Italian Migration,” pp. 106–18; Jacoby, “Changing Economic Patterns,”
pp. 225, 231.