ACROSS AN OPEN SEA. MEDITERRANEAN NETWORKS AND ITALIAN TRADE IN AN ERA OF CALAMITY
BY
ROMNEY DAVID SMITH
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN CONFORMITY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY CENTRE FOR MEDIEVAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
© Copyright by Romney David Smith 2016 ABSTRACT
Across an Open Sea. Mediterranean Networks and Italian Trade in an Era of Calamity
Romney David Smith Doctorate of Philosophy Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto. 2016
ABSTRACT
In the eleventh century, commercial dominance of the Mediterranean passed from the Muslim and Jewish traders of the House of Islam to the Italians of such maritime cities as Pisa or Amalfi. Although the outcome of this economic transition is well-known, the purpose of this study is to consider the mechanisms that motored Italian takeover. An examination of the characteristics of the trade network, both before and after the economic transition, finds that little structural change occurred; it is therefore argued that Italian merchants operated in conformity with the commercial paradigms of the existing Muslim and Jewish trade network, which are known to us from the Cairo
Geniza. It was only the coincidence of major political failure in the large Mediterranean polities that enabled a realignment of Italian merchants from participants to dominant players in the existing trade network. This political failure, which I term “the great calamity,” saw the end of the Caliphate of Cordoba and left both Byzantium and the