THE WESTERN MEDITERRA.NEAN KINGDOMS 1200-EiOOassumed automatic rights of priority in the Balearics and in
north Mrica. It was an act of inspiration not to punish the
Italians for their support for the Muslim king of Mayurqa,
but to offer them a renewal and extension of trading rights.
Though the Italians were discouraged from making use of
the port of Barcelona, and Italian bankers were repeatedly
chased out of Barcelona and Majorca, there was valuable
cooperation in the funding of trading expeditions to north
Mrica, and both Catalans and Italians were active in the grain
trade out of Sicily, often in partnership.
Barcelona was not like the Italian cities in one import-
ant respect. It never achieved true autonomy. But instead it
gained an equally important advantage, the involvement of
the king in its affairs, for the king himself invested in trade
and owned ships. F⢠What the king sought was 'a just balance
between royal authority and local autonomy'. By the end of
his reign the Consell de Cent, the Council of One Hundred,
had been granted day-to-day control of the city's affairs,
while other towns such as Perpignan and Montpellier also
possessed privileges guaranteeing internal self-government.
At the same time the king had his own representatives in
Barcelona, such as the royal batlle or bailiff, and could to some
extenl. rely on the support of the greater patrician families
such as the Grony and the de Banyeres, who were able to
help in the collection of port revenues or were active in the
exploitation of overseas markets. The king gave active encour-
agement to new initiatives such as the minting of the doblench
coins as early as 1222, and of the tern coins in 1258, the latter
minted from one-quarter pure silver, and much cited there-
after as a standard currency in the Catalan realms.^41 ; Another
important factor in the rise of Barcelona was its reputation
for shipping skills; here, the acquisition of Majorca was argu-
ably of crucial importance, for intensive links to the Balearics
could only be maintained by the development of impress-
ive skills in all-year-round navigation. (Indeed, it was Majorca
which was to become a distinguished centre of maritime
cartography.)^17 By 1284, evidence shows that shipping was
- Bensch, Barcelona and its rulers, jmssim, for the role of the Crown.
- Bisson, Medieval Crown of A. ragan, p. 61.
4 7. There is a big literature on Catalan cartography, e.g. Y.K Fall, L'A.fiique a
la naissance de La cmtogmphie moderne. Les cartes majorquines, 14eme-15eme
sirdes (Paris, 1985); Abulafia, i\:Jediterranean Emporium, pp. 204-8.