Commercial Exchange Across the Mediterranean: Byzantium, the Crusader Levant, Egypt And Italy (Variorum Collected Studies Series)

The customary treatment of Mediterranean trade from the 11th to the mid-15th century emphasizes the predominance of western merchants and the commercial exchange of spices and eastern raw materials for western woollens and other finished products. The studies in this collection, the sixth by David Jacoby to be published in the Variorum series, adopt a different perspective. They underscore the economic vitality of various countries bordering the eastern Mediterranean, their industrial capacity, the importance of exchanges between them, and the important contribution of the merchants based in that region to trans-Mediterranean trade. They also illustrate the role of hitherto neglected commodities, such as timber, iron, silk and cheese, in that trade. Jacoby (The Hebrew U., Jerusalem) explores eastern Mediterranean commerce from the mid-tenth to the mid-fifteenth century and emphasizes regional economies and their interaction, rather than their relationship and exchange with the West. The study presents articles printed elsewhere from 1998-2001 and encompasses the structure, commodities, staples and goods such as cheese, war materials, topography, transportation issues, and silk textiles in commerce in Egypt, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Acre, and Latin Romania. The articles maintain their original pagination and two of them are in Italian. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR