206 Jacoby
On a more general level, the patterns of Latin settlement and economic
activity generated some significant changes in the location and relative impor-
tance of markets and fairs. Existing commercial routes were partly deflected
to new courses and destinations. Fairs must have been quite common
before the Fourth Crusade in the territories conquered by the Latins, yet chang-
ing circumstances induced landowners to transfer existing fairs to new loca-
tions or to establish new ones yielding revenue on their estates. The annual fair
of St Demetrius, held inland at some distance from Glarenza, was presumably
of Byzantine origin. Attested in 1338, it was the most important of the fairs doc-
umented in the 14th-century Frankish Morea. Venetian merchants attending it
were supposed to return with their goods to Glarenza within eight days after
its conclusion, in time to meet Venetian state galleys and other ships returning
to Venice.
In Venetian territories all rural products channelled by land and by sea to
cities, regardless of their ultimate destination, were to be sold and taxed at
urban markets supervised by the state. In Crete the maritime transportation
of these products was directed toward the main ports of the island, namely
Candia, Canea, Rethymnon and Sitia. Two late 13th-century customs lists
record taxes levied at the land gate and in the harbour of Candia. The weigh-
ing or measuring of goods was carried out by state-appointed officials in the
presence of state assessors, who also acted as official brokers. Similar practices
existed in Coron and Modon.40 In these circumstances, it is rather unlikely
that rural fairs should have survived in Crete or that any subsisted outside the
cities of Coron and Modon in the exiguous territories of Venetian Messenia.
Industrial Activities in Urban Centres: Tanning and Silk Weaving
Two industrial activities carried out in Latin Greece, tanning and the manu-
facture of silk textiles, were of particular importance since they were export-
oriented. Tanning was practiced on a large scale in Candia, Negroponte, Modon
and Coron, cities enjoying an abundant supply of skins.41 It was a major occu-
pation among Jews.42 Venice was the main destination of the exported hides.
40 Jacoby, “Cretan Cheese,” pp. 54–55.
41 Jacoby, “Rural Exploitation,” p. 265, n. 472, and p. 268; numerous documents on tanning
in Modon and Coron: Konstantinos N. Sathas, ed., Documents inédits relatifs à l’histoire
de la Grèce au Moyen Âge, (Μνημεία Ελληνικής Ιστορίας) 9 vols. (Paris, 1880–90), 4:33–186,
passim.
42 David Jacoby, “The Jewish Communities in the Social Fabric of Latin Greece: Between
Segregation and Interaction,” in this volume, pp. 255–87. On trade in hides and tanning