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Sicily also contained sulfur mines and saltpeter operations in grottos, which
prospered alongside the expansion in the use of gunpowder in the fifteenth
century. Yet, Sicily had no mining specialty comparable to the Sardinian silver
mines. Coral from Trapani has no doubt been produced over the centuries, but
it has always been worked locally, while the coral from Sardinia was always ear-
marked for Marseilles and Barcelona, where it would be worked before being
re-exported to the east.
With perhaps only one exception, Sicilian and Sardinian products would
be exported in their raw state; that exception is textiles. Both islands shared
low levels of manufacturing activity, aside from some artisans who produced
fairly rough textiles from wool and cotton, including woven canvas for mat-
tresses and orbace, a waterproof fabric, primarily for domestic use. However, in
Sicily, specialized silk weavers produced ribbons and diadems in Palermo until
around 1350, and then later in Messina. This textile tradition did not die out
completely, for some contracts show that Calabrese Jewish immigrants joined
the production of silk velvet in the fifteenth century.
But such products accounted for only a small part of the total market. The
bulk of fine fabrics—almost all sheets, drapes, and canvases—as well as paint-
ed wooden furniture, all ironwork, copperware, and firearms were obtained
through import. Given the high rates of exchange for grains, these goods came
to be purchased in great abundance, as documented in traders’ inventories.
These types of documents provide an incomparable source on the “mate-
rial” culture of the time, as expressed in the dominant fashions of French and
Flemish cut clothing, Milanese weapons, and trunks and coffers from Pisa.
The economies of Sardinia and Sicily were complementary in that they were
both great grain-producing regions, with comparable ecological conditions.
Sardinian productivity during the Middle Ages is estimated to have been just
slightly below the average yield achieved between 1870–1950. For the most part,
grains were cultivated on small properties, which tended to retreat in the face
of common and domain lands.32 Sicilian productivity appears to have been
markedly more efficient than Sardinia per grains sown, but the yield per hect-
are seems to have been similar or even smaller.33 Land is in fact abundant in
Sicily and half can lie fallow at any one time during the cultivation cycle. And
the agricultural infrastructure of Sicily was well geared towards exportation.
In contrast to Sardinia’s small farms, Sicily had large scale entrepreneurs, the
borgisi, launching heavy trains (with teams of five head of cattle per plough),
32 Day, “La Sardegna e i suoi dominatori,” pp. 112–113.
33 Henri Bresc, “La massaria sicilienne au XVe siècle: le compte de Benedetto Bonaguida,”
Bolletino dell’Istituto italiano per il medioevo e Archivio Muratoriano 109:2 (2007), pp. 35–64.