230 benjamin arbel
have assumed the leading place among the western trading nations that
were active in Cretan ports.422
Under Venetian rule, Cyprus seems to have been the Republic’s rich-
est overseas colony, whose economy was, to considerable extent, geared
for exportation. In addition to its abundant salt pans, Cyprus exported
sugar and, increasingly, cotton. Until the mid-16th century it also often
produced wheat and barley in quantities that left considerable surplus
for export. Last but not least, the island’s importance as a front base for
Venice’s maritime trade in the eastern Mediterranean was enormous.423
Smaller overseas colonies were often quite profitable for Venice. Tana,
on the northern outskirts of the Black Sea, served, until its fall in 1478, as
an important commercial emporium, particularly for the slave trade and
the trade in furs, roe, or caviar, attracting Venetian vessels to this farthest
outpost of Venice’s colonial empire.424 Silk was the staple of Tinos. It was
exported to Italy and, after 1670, also to France. The silk economy seems
to have encouraged population growth; during the second half of the 16th
century the island was inhabited by about 9000–10,000 people, and by
the late 1630s its population seems to have doubled.425 The island of Arbe
provided tow for Venice’s shipbuilding industry, as well as honey for the
Venetian cuisine, but it also exported wool, coarse woollens, and leather.426
Friedland, ed., Maritime Food Transport (Cologne/Weimar/Vienna, 1994), pp. 199–211;
Tucci, “Il commercio del vino nell’economia cretese,” in Gherardo Ortalli, ed., Venezia e
Creta (Venice, 1998), pp. 183–206; Benjamin Arbel, “The ‘Jewish Wine’ of Crete,” in Ilias
Anagnostakis, ed., Μονεμβάσιος οίνος-Μονεμβασ(i)ά-Μalvasia (Athens, 2008), pp. 81–88;
Braudel, The Mediterranean, 1:612–24; Gigliola Pagano de Divitiis, Mercanti Inglesi nell’Italia
del Seicento (Venice, 1990), pp. 18–21.
422 Angeliki Panopoulou, “Όψεις της ναυτιλιακής κίνησης του Χάνδακα το 17ο αιώνα,”
Κρητική Εστία Δ/2 (1988), 152–210; Koster, “The Beginning of Dutch Navigation and Trade
with the Levant”; Koster, “The Conquering Dutch Merchants and Shipowners,” pp. 97–166;
Tucci, “Il commercio del vino,” p. 206.
423 Benjamin Arbel, “The Economy of Cyprus during the Venetian Period (1473–1571),”
in Vassos Karageorghis and D. Michaelides, eds., The Development of the Cypriot Economy
from the Prehistoric Period to the Present Day (Nicosia, 1996), pp. 185–92.
424 Charles Verlinden, “La colonie vénitienne de Tana, centre de la traite des esclaves
au XIVe et au début du XVe siècle,” Studi in onore di Gino Luzzatto, 2 vols (Milan, 1950), 2:1–
25; Skržinskaja, “Storia della Tana,” pp. 22–23, 33; Luigi Messadaglia, “Schienale e morona.
Storia di due vocaboli e contributo allo studio degli usi alimentari e dei traffici veneti con
il Levante,” Atti del R. Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. Classe di scienze morali e
letterarie 101.2 (1941), 50; Bernard Doumerc, “La Tana au XVe siècle: comptoir ou colonie?”
in Michel Balard, ed., État et colonisation au Moyen Âge et à la Renaissance (Lyons, 1989),
pp. 251–66.
425 Lamansky, Secrets d’État de Venise, p. 652; Miller, The Latins, p. 631; Slot, Archipelagus,
pp. 18–19 and n. 24, 28–29, 56, 264, 290, 331 n. 24.
426 Pederin, “Commercio, economia, pesca,” pp. 227–28, 230.