THE WESTER!'\ MEDITERR-\NEAI\ KII\(;))OMS 1200-l:iOOas figs; the island lived from its trade. Indeed, the papacy
had conferred special privileges following the conquest of
Majorca by James I, permitting intensive trade with the
Muslims since it was otherwise unclear how the inhabitants
could survive.
Majorca City thus became a great emporium or entre-
pot through which there passed a startling variety of goods:
cowrie-shells and cinnamon from the Indian Ocean, gold,
wax and leather from north Africa, dried fruits from Moorish
Spain and Majorca itself, wine from Valencia, woollen cloth
from Catalonia, Languedoc and Flanders, raw wool from Eng-
land, grain from Sicily and Sardinia, butter from Minorca,
salt from Ibiza, and, last but not least, large numbers of
Muslim slaves, whether the captive population of Min orca in
I287 or the inhabitants of the mountainous interior of Libya.
Attempts were also made to imitate Barcelona (by 1300 a
major textile centre) by creating a vibrant woollen cloth
industry on the island, but this only took off in the late
fourteenth century. By 1300 the king of Majorca was minting
his own coinage on the island, too, emancipating Majorca
from dependence on the currency systems of Valencia and
Barcelona. Close links to the mainland possessions of the king
of M~jorca, Perpignan and Montpellier, brought further
advantages; both cities were active centres of manufacture,
trade and banking, heavily involved in the trans-European
textile traffic, and Collioure, the outport of Perpignan, be-
came a flourishing secondary centre of trade by 1300.:u
Treaties with other Mediterranean rulers fostered the
interests of merchants from the lands of the Majorcan king:
there were treaties with Castile in 1284, 1310 and 1334; with
Aragonese Sicily in 1305 and 1313; and with Angevin Naples
in 1325; the invasion of Sardinia in 1323-24 brought a fur-
ther trading privilege to the men of Majorca and Roussillon;
relations with the Muslim world were fostered by treaties
with Tunis in 1271, 1278 and 1313; with Tlemcen in 1313,
with Bougie in 1302, and with the Nasrid kings of Granada in
- Abulafia, Mediterranean J:'mpon·um, passim; F. Fernandez-Armesto, Before
Columfms. Exploration and rolonisationfrmn the lHeditnTanean to the A.t/rmtir,
1229-1492 (London, 1987), pp. 13-31; Riera Melis, 1JI Corona de
Aragon y Pl reino de Mal/arm; F. Sevillano Colom, J. Pou :\1untaner,
Histiiria del jJUPrlo de Palma riP Mallorm (Palma de Mall orca, 1974).