THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN Kll\:CDOMS 1200-1500crown. In the mid-thirteenth century, both the city of Barce-
lona and the monarchy asserted the right to appoint consuls;
in the long term, it was the king who retained greater influ-
ence, even drawing under the wing of his consul Catalan mer-
chants from cities other than Barcelona, notably Majorca. By
the 1250s Tunis had its own Catalan Jonduk or warehouse;
many fonduks also contained offices for the consul, accom-
modation for visiting merchants, a chaplain, even a bakery.
James I actively promoted the foundation of new fonduks,
sending Raymond de Conches, who hailed from Montpellier,
to Alexandria in 1262 to negotiate for its foundation; later,
Guillem de Montcada became consul there, the carrier of a
surname of unusual distinction, a man whose trading links
to the court of the king of Tunis are also documented.
Relations with Muslim rulers remained delicate: Raymond
de Conches had to go to Alexandria a second time in 1264
when it became clear that Catalan goods were being seized;
he was to threaten the sultan with licensed piracy against his
ships. Force as well as diplomacy was the only way to protect
Catalan interests overseas. But the king expected revenue
from his consulates. In 1259 James I was outraged to hear
that his consuls in Tunis were paying a rent estimated at
one-third of what the fonduk could actually support; the
rent was summarily tripled. In 1274 James sent an envoy to
Tunis to find out why two years of rent had failed to arrive.
The monarchy correctly identified in the consulates a major
source of revenue which might enable the king to emancipate
himself from excessive dependence on internal taxation of
his Spanish lands.^50
Here James was obliged to turn to the Carts and Cortes in
search of grants of bovatge and monedatge, the former of which
was in danger of becoming a regular general tax. Catalonia,
Aragon and eventually Valencia possessed their own assem-
blies, which were often enlarged to include representatives
of the towns. The Carts did not yet possess the influence
that they were to acquire under later kings, and James seems
- A.B. Hibbert, 'Catalan Consulates in the thirteenth century', Cam-
!Jridge Historical journal, 9 ( 1949), pp. 352-8; C. E. Dufourcq, L 'Espagnr
catalane et le Maghri!J aux Xllle et XIVe siedes (Paris, 1966), pp. 133-56,
311-36; C.E. Dufourcq, 'Les consulats de Tunis et de Bougie au temps
de Jacques le Conqueran t', A. nuario de estudios mnlievales,^3 (1966),
pp. 469-79.