The Economy Of Latin Greece 207
The silk industry in the western provinces of Byzantium was market-
oriented from its establishment in the 11th century. Local archons appear to
have been the driving force behind its launching and development in Thebes,
Corinth, as well as in the islands of Euboea and Andros, in response to growing
demand for high-grade silk textiles in the empire, especially in Constantinople.
All these centres produced samite, a rather heavy, strong and glossy silk cloth.
The Latin conquest put an end to the role of the archons in the manufactur-
ing and marketing of silks. They were replaced by western entrepreneurs and
merchants, among them Genoese attested in Thebes around 1240. Production
in this city continued until the late 14th century, as illustrated by its samites
recorded in western inventories. Negroponte and Andros shipped their silk
textiles to Venice in the second half of the 13th century. According to an unpub-
lished commercial manual completed in Florence around 1320, kermes-dyed
samites were also being exported from Thebes, Negroponte and other locali-
ties of Latin Greece to Egypt, yet we do not know how long this trade contin-
ued. Corinth may still have manufactured silks by 1303, yet production must
have definitely ceased in 1312, following the attack and looting of the city by the
forces of the Catalan Company established in the Duchy of Athens. Satin and
a variety of samite were produced at Patras around 1430.
Soon after the Latin conquest Italian merchants gained access to silk fibres
produced in Latin Greece. Their supply to the expanding silk industries of
Lucca and Venice appears to have been more profitable than the sponsoring
and financing of manufacturing of silk textiles in Greek silk centres. Growing
exports of raw material may have restricted to some extent the latter’s produc-
tion capacity. More importantly, the ability of Greek weavers to compete with
high-grade silks produced in Italy gradually declined. The silk workshops of
Latin Greece appear to have upheld Byzantine tradition, both in the nature
and quality of their textiles. This continuity ensured them a share of domestic
and foreign markets in the 13th and, to a lesser degree, in the 14th century.
In the long run, however, lack of adaptation to new fashions and innovative
technologies developed in Italy in the 14th century weakened their ability to
withstand the fierce competition of the silk industries of Venice and Lucca.43
in Crete and Jewish participation in these activities, see also Mario Gallina, “Un aspetto
poco noto dell’ economia veneto-cretese: Il commercio delle pelli nella seconda metà del
Trecento (dai registri notarili candioti),” Thesaurismata 39/40 (2009/10), 57–89.
43 Jacoby, “Silk in Western Byzantium,” pp. 452–500; David Jacoby, “Silk in Mediaeval
Andros,” in Captain and Scholar: Papers in Memory of Demetrios I. Polemis, ed. Evangelos
Chrysos and Elizabeth A. Zachariadou (Andros, 2009), pp. 137–50; David Jacoby, “Genoa,
Silk Trade and Silk Manufacture in the Mediterranean Region (ca. 1100–1300),” in Tessuti,
oreficerie, miniature in Liguria, xiii–xv secolo, ed. Anna Rosa Calderoni Masetti, Clario Di