COMMERCIAL RELATIONS IN THE MIDDLE AGES 45
situation had advantages beyond any other harbour town of Italy. Separated from the mainland by the sea and from the open sea by the low fringing walls of its lagoons, surrounded almost entirely by shallows pierced only by a few deep channels, Venice was usually considered by its own citizens, as by foreigners, to be beyond attack. The political troubles of the continent made it a refuge from the time of Attila, and the absence of any maritime rival on the adriatic left open a valuable and extensive field of operations for commerce, for colonization and even for conquest.” [1] Her benevolent neutrality and her allegiance to Byzantine greatly augmented her prosperity for on the decline of the Eastern Empire the whole adriatic coast came under her influence and the chief markets of Byzantine coast, Antioch, Inopuestia, Adana, Tarsus, Attalia, Strobilos Chios, Ephisus and Phoeacea Hiraclea and Selymbria, Chrysopolis, Demetrias, Adrianople, Athens, Thebes, Thissalonica, Negropont, Corinth Corfus, Durazzo etc. were opened for Venician trade. Her commercial policy was very farsighted and wise. She laid down the rule “of siding always with the stronger, especially in maritime struggle” and practised it on many an occasion and this by crushing all her enemies and ingratiating herself into the favour of the strong achieved her greatness.
Genoa, another city state came late to share in the oriental trade. 1097 A. D. marks her rise. “The origin of the state as an independent body may be found in a Campagna or political association, founded at the very close of the eleventh century, controlled by consuls freely elected and supported by the bishops of the city against secular lords, such as Oberti.” [2]
From 1097 to 1122 she secured important trading concessions and established factories both on the Levantine Coast as well as on the African. Her trade extended to Egypt through Alexandria, to Tunis and to the Southern Coast towns of France and Spain.
Origin of Pisa which is similar in nature to that of Genoa dates from 1085. By deeds of arms she succeeded in securing commercial privileges from the Moslems and from the Byzantine
1 Reymond Beazley—“ The Dawn of Modern Geography ” , Vol. II, p. 401.
2 Ibid. Vol. II, p. 419.