Keeping Kings in Check 87trading— from shipping and insurance, to pledging and pawning and de-
positing, exchanging currencies, borrowing, lending, mortgaging, transfer-
ring funds, and much else. Th ere were institutional elements as well. Th e
most important of these were the various fairs held in Eu rope, in which
merchants from far- fl ung places would congregate to buy, sell, and exchange
goods— and to resolve disputes. Th ere were judicial facilities at the fairs,
known by the colorful name of “pie powder” courts (apparently from the
French pieds poudrés, meaning “dusty feet”).
Th e details of the law merchant and its history are fascinating, but they
are really part of the history of commercial law rather than of international
law as such. It will suffi ce for present purposes to take brief note of various
ways in which governments lent their support to the development of inter-
national trade. Rulers sometimes took great care to attract foreign mer-
chants into their territories by such means as off ering special quarters of
towns where they could live permanently under the laws of their home
states. Governments were oft en very aware of the value of trade— and of the
need to provide appropriate legal protections for it. Th ree par tic u lar devices
may be identifi ed. Th e fi rst was the concluding of commercial treaties, to
enable nationals to trade in foreign states under specifi ed conditions that
could be known in advance. Such treaties are fi rst evident in central and
northern Italy. Th e oldest one on record was apparently between Venice and
Pavia in 840. It guaranteed to the subjects of each city the freedom to trade
in and with the other. It also prohibited the levying of new taxes on naviga-
tion or the circulation of goods, as well as barring Venice (then active in
slave trading) from subjecting Italians to slavery.
Many other commercial treaties of this general character were concluded
between the various Eu ro pe an powers over the ensuing centuries. Some were
with powers outside the Latin Christian world. For example, Venice con-
cluded a far- reaching commercial treaty with the Byzantine Empire in 992,
which fi xed the rates of duty on merchandise imported into or exported
from the empire by Venetians. It also placed a maximum limit of three days
on delays to which Venetian ships could be subjected when leaving Byzan-
tine ports. A subsequent treaty of 1082 went much further by granting Ve-
netians complete freedom of trade and navigation throughout the Byzantine
Empire, including exemption from all taxes (except possibly in the Black Sea
area).