ROBERT THE \\-1SE OF NAPLES, 1309-43stimulate the economy: the careful protection of merchants
travelling within the kingdom; improvements in port facil-
ities at such centres as Manfredonia (under Charles I); the
establishment of more than a dozen new fairs; the provision
of ships from the royal fleet to merchants, when not needed
in war; the opening of new silver mines in Calabria, whose
exploitation was farmed out at a charge of one-third of the
proceeds. Few of these measures were entirely new. The
crown stockpiled salt, as it had done under Frederick; profits
could reach 1300 per cent once the mineral was released to
buyers. Export taxes were maintained and, when reformed,
were sometimes increased: Charles II introduced a light tax
which was actually to be levied on goods exempt from all tax
(the jus tari); under Robert it developed into a tax on all
goods irrespective of whether they were otherwise exempt.
As Pryor shows, the Angevin kings were not impoverished
by comparison with their contemporaries:~HRuler Territory and date Annual revenue
in florins
Charles I of Anjou Naples and Sicily,
1266-82 1,100,000
Robert the Wise Naples, 1309-43 600,000
Louis IX France, 1226-70 500,000
Philip VI France, 1329 786,000
Visconti lords Milan, 1338 700,000
Edward III England and
Gascony, 1327-77 550-700,000
Boniface VIII Papacy, 1294-1303 250,000
John XXII Papacy, 1316-34 240,000
The key difference is that the Angevin figures declined over
time; the French increased, up to the Hundred Years' War.
Partly this is simply attributable to the loss of Sicily, which
was a source of great wealth; but in the later years of Robert's
reign and during that of Joanna I there was increasingly
dramatic erosion. Moreover, Charles I maintained his court
and armies by failing on occasion to pay the tribute due to
the pope; over 90,000 ounces of gold were due at the time of- J. Pryor, 'Foreign policy and economic policy: the Angevins of Sicily
and the economic decline of southern Italy', in L.O. Frappell, Prin-
cipalities, Powers and Estates. Studi~es in medieval and early modem govern-
ment and society (Adelaide, 1980), pp. 43-55.