page_title: Economic history of Venice
section_title: Between Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire: 9th century to 1171/1204
hierarchical_section_title: Economic history of Venice / Between Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire: 9th century to 1171/1204
context_page_description: Venice, which is situated at the far end of the Adriatic Sea, was once the richest and most powerful centre of Europe for hundreds of years. The reason being that it gained large scale profit of the adjacent middle European markets. Venice was the major centre of trade with the Arabs and indirectly the Indians in the Middle Ages. It also served as origin of the economic development and integration for the rest of Europe during the Middle Ages.
  The Venetian might reached its peaked during the 15th century when they monopolized the spice trade from India through the Arabs using exclusive trade agreements. This prompted the Spanish and the Portuguese to embark on the search for the new route to India, leading to the discovery of Americas and the start of Modern Age.
  Nevertheless, only the nobility or patriciate had the right to exercise the wealth-bringing long-distance trade. It was the same patriciate that erected a monopoly of political leadership. It left production and small business to the strata of its society that were not capable of becoming a member of the council - which was the visible sign of nobility.
context_section_description: With the destruction of Comacchio (883) that controlled the mouth of the Po River, Venetians liberated the trade till Pavia and Piacenza – the more as a treaty with Charles "the Fat" had opened his Realm. Much more difficult was the relation to Istria and even more Dalmatia, where the Narentani, pirates of the Dalmatian coast resisted until 1000, when doge Pietro II Orseolo conquered the northern and central part of the region.
  Privileges in the Holy Empire worked well together in combination with supremacy in the Adriatic Sea and a chart of the Byzantine Emperor of 992. In compensation for military aid against the Arabs of southern Italy emperor Basil II had reduced the tax for the ships by half. In addition Venetians started trade with Tunisia and Alexandria in Egypt where they delivered wood, weapons, metal and slaves, even though the trade with Islam was sometimes banned. Emperor Leo V (813–820) had already forbidden this trade, but during relatively peaceful times this ban was obviously loosened.
  The breakthrough came in 1082 with the privilege of emperor Alexios I Komnenos, which guaranteed free trade and opened large parts of his Realm for the first time. Colonies for the merchants, Fondachi and wharves completed and enhanced the by far largest colony in Constantinople.
  In the Holy Land, which was conquered by the Crusaders at about 1098, Venice gained the right of free trade, because it had helped Gottfried von Bouillon in 1100 and he subsequently conquered Tyros, the trade central in Syria. The colonies enjoyed autarchy and autarky. From Syria to Little Armenia they conducted their trade deep into Asia, with future colonies being eyed in Alexandria and the Maghrib.
  The counterpart of the privilege of 1258 became the one of 1084 that emperor Henry IV ceded for his whole realm. Deeply mired in the Investiture Controversy he allowed Venetians to trade in his whole realm, but his subjects were not allowed to extend their trading activities over Venice. Together with the monopoly in the Adriatic Sea and the staple, and the fact that merchants could only trade in Venice with the intermediates that the city provided, Venice was on the way to monopolizing trade between West and East. The merchants of the 1082 Holy Empire had to reside in the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, where control was intense.
caption: Venetian territory around 1000
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