developed a taste for silks, for spices from India, and for
the superior cutlery of Damascus, to name a few of the
items that by 1250 had become the components of an
immense commerce. Those who returned to Europe
brought their new tastes with them and created a fash-
ion for Eastern luxuries that the Italians were well
positioned to fill. Each shipload of crusaders offered its
master the opportunity to make commercial contacts
along the route, and elaborate trading networks soon
developed between the Italians and their merchant
counterparts in Greece, the Aegean, Anatolia, and the
Levant.
The demand for Eastern luxuries was possible only
because the real wealth of the west had increased since
Carolingian times. The agricultural revolution was pri-
marily responsible for this phenomenon. The return of
settled conditions also permitted gold and silver that
had been hoarded during the bad old days to be re-
leased into circulation. This, together with the slow but
steady increase in European mining during the eleventh
and twelfth centuries, increased the amount of specie
available for trade. Copper coinage remained the stan-
dard in everyday transactions. Silver became more
common, and in the mid-thirteenth century gold was
introduced for the first time on a large scale.
From the Italian point of view, the Eastern trade was
ideal. Luxuries from the East possessed a far higher ratio
of value to weight than did agricultural products and
could generate greater profits. The risks were corre-
spondingly high. But, as in the case of the spice trade, a
single voyage could make a trader’s fortune. Spices, the
most important of which were black pepper, nutmeg,
and cinnamon, originated in India or in what is now In-
donesia and were transported across the Indian Ocean
in the dhows of Arab merchants. They were then tran-
shipped by caravan to the Mediterranean ports where
they were purchased by Italian traders who carried them
home by ship. Other merchants carried them overland
to consumers beyond the Alps. At each stage of this
journey except the last, profits might amount to several
hundred percent on invested capital. However, ships
were frequently lost to pirates, bad weather, or the un-
predictable fortunes of war and politics.
Risky ventures of this kind were often supported
by a commenda contract (see document 10.1). An in-
vestor, usually an older man or a woman, would fi-
nance the voyage of a younger merchant in return for
half of the total profits. After two or three such voy-
ages, the younger man could then retire and become
an investor in his own right. The Eastern trade never
equaled bulk commodities either in volume or in total
value, but as a means of capital accumulation it was
not surpassed. Many Italians became enormously rich.
Much of this wealth was then reinvested in banking,
which soon became international in scope. Banking
began when traders sought to deposit their cash with
goldsmiths or moneychangers who had the facilities182 Chapter 10DOCUMENT 10.1
A Commenda from Venice, 1073
This is a fairly standard example of a commenda contract
from the early period of the commercial revolution.In the name of the Lord God and of our Savior, Je-
sus Christ. In the year of the Incarnation of the
same Redeemer 1073, in the month of August,
eleventh indiction, at Rialto, I, Giovanni Lissado of
Luprio, together with my heirs, have received in
partnership from you, Sevasto Orefice, son of Ser
Trudimondo, and from your heirs, this amount:
£200 Venetian. And I myself have invested £100 in
it. And with this capital we have aquired two
shares of the ship in which Gosmiro da Molina is
captain. And I am under obligation to bring all of
this with me on a commercial voyage to Thebes in
the ship which the aforesaid Gosmiro da Molino
sails as captain. Indeed, by this agreement and un-
derstanding of ours I promise to put to work this
entire capital and to strive the best way I can.
Then if the capital is saved, we are to divide what-
ever profit the Lord may grant us from it by exact
halves, without fraud and evil device. And what-
ever I can gain with these goods from any source, I
am under obligation to invest all of it in the part-
nership. And if all these goods are lost because of
the sea or of hostile people, and this is proved—
may this be averted—neither party ought to ask
any of them from the other; if, however, some of
them remain, in proportion as we invested, so shall
we share. Let this partnership exist between us so
long as our wills are fully agreed.
But if I do not observe everything just as is
stated above, I, together with my heirs, then
promise to give and to return to you and your
heirs everything in the double, both capital and
profit, out of my land and my house or out of any-
thing that I am known to have in this world.
Lopez, Robert S., and Raymond, Irving W. Medieval Trade
in the Mediterrean World.New York: Columbia University
Press, 1955.