Catalan Commerce in the Late Middle Ages*

CATALAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 5: 29-65 (2012) Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Barcelona DOI: 10.2436/20.1000.01.70 · ISSN: 2013-407X http://revistes.iec.cat/chr/ Catalan commerce in the late Middle Ages* Maria Teresa Ferrer** Institut d’Estudis Catalans Received 28 November 2011 · Accepted 20 December 2011 Abstract This is a summary of the development of Catalan maritime trade (encompassing Catalonia, Mallorca and Valencia) from the 12th to the late 15th century. The local products used for exchanges are studied, including saffron, dried fruit, raisins and figs, coral, wool, glue , tallow and manufactured items like woolen cloth, ceramics from Valencia, crafted hides, glass items, etc. The overseas spheres of trade are studied from the closest, namely Occitania and France, Italy and the Maghreb, to the Mediterranean Levant and the Atlantic territories, including Andalusia, Portugal, England and Flanders. Keywords: maritime commerce, Middle Ages, Catalonia, Valencia, Mallorca Origins and development of Catalan vence as well, which then continued on overland. Anoth- commerce er maritime and perhaps also land route connected Cata- lonia to Islamic Spain. However, events in the 12th In this article I shall examine the maritime commercial ac- century were paving the way for the major commercial tivities of Catalans abroad. I shall only briefly mention the expansion that took place in the 13th century.1 mercantile activities of foreigners in Catalonia, Valencia Maritime mercantile activity abroad is linked to Barce- and Mallorca, which would complement our overview of lona, the capital of Catalonia and the only urban centre mediaeval Catalan commerce, yet would require a book of capable of sustaining an activity of this kind in the first their own. Furthermore, the commerce in which foreigners half of the 12th century. Barcelona was also the engine engaged in the regions we are examining is almost better that drove the onset of Catalonia’s expansion in the sec- known than the activities of Catalans abroad. It should be ond half of the century and the subsequent consolidation clarified that the term Catalan applied to commerce since of this expansion in the 13th century.2 the 13th century is meant in the broad sense in which it was When Benjamí de Tudela travelled through Barcelona used in the Middle Ages; that is, it encompasses Mallorcans on his journey to Jerusalem in 1150, he described the city and Valencians as well. With the exception of an occasional as a small but lovely nucleus, and he recounts that it was brief reference, I shall not study land-based commerce frequented by merchants from Greece, Pisa, Genoa, Sicily abroad since at this point there is little documentation and Alexandria.3 available to enable us to analyse it. Commerce with Occitania, Provence and the Tyrrhe- Catalan commercial activity during the early Middle nian ports, all of them nearby, must have come first be- Ages was quite scant due to the difficulty entailed in or- cause it could be conducted without losing sight of the ganising the land after the Islamic occupation and in re- coast and in small boats. Narbonne, Montpelier, Mar- populating it in the midst of constant conflicts with the seille, Genoa, Pisa and Sicily were visited from the earliest neighbouring Muslim lands. The urban markets began to days, as were the nearby Muslim lands. By the second half spur the inland economy in the 9th and 10th centuries, of the 12th century, Catalans were venturing as far as the and starting in the 11th century the earliest fairs started to eastern Mediterranean. boost trade both domestically and abroad. In these early The growth in middle- and long-distance maritime centuries, there was apparently a land route which joined commerce which characterised the second half of the Catalonia and Flanders, and perhaps a sea route to Pro- 12th century stimulated naval construction. The mercantile fleet must have been important by the early decades of the 13th century. This growth explains how James I was * This paper has been held through the research project “La Corona able to conduct his expedition to conquer Mallorca in d’Aragó a la Mediterrània tardo-medieval. Interculturalitats, mediació inte- gració i transferències cultural” (HAR2010-16361). 1229 with a primarily Catalan fleet, something that would ** Contact address: Maria Teresa Ferrer. E-mail: [email protected] have been unimaginable in the first half of the previous 001-134 Catalan Historical 5 (Eng).indd 29 01/10/12 17:39 30 Cat. Hist. Rev. 5, 2012 Maria Teresa Ferrer century, when the Catalans needed the fleets of Pisa or production of the successful goods, in both the agricul- Genoa for their conquests. tural and artisanal sectors, which were capable of manu- The development of Barcelona’s navigation and com- facturing products that became widely accepted in the merce was facilitated by the adoption of protectionist foreign markets. measures, which were not unique back then; other coun- Initially, the Catalans could offer wheat only after tries were also adopting them. The first was aimed at pro- bountiful harvests, along with oil, honey and wine, just tecting the fleet against competition from abroad. An or- like the countries around it. They also offered Muslim der issued by James I in 1227 bans any foreign ship from captives, the product of the spoils of war during the cen- loading merchandise in Barcelona with an Ultramar turies of expansion (12th and 13th), which turned into a (Siria and Palestina), Alexandria or Ceuta, or from load- demand for slaves in the 14th century.6 In manufacturing, ing merchandise in these places with Barcelona as the the oldest and most reputed goods were weapons: high- destination as long as there was a Barcelona ship in the quality swords and knives, and leather worked in the Arab port willing to make the journey and carry the goods.4 technique, cordovan leathers.7 These are the items that The territorial expansion towards Mallorca and Valen- the Catalans took to the fairs in Champagne in the 13th cia activated commerce. The conquest of Mallorca pro- century, as we shall see, but locally-manufactured textiles vided security in the nearby seas, and the island served as soon began to be exported as well. a base for the merchant fleet: it was close to North Africa From an early date, the manufacture of tallow, the and was on the way to Sicily and the Levant. Trade devel- melted fat of ruminants, was developed, along with pitch, oped quite rapidly in Mallorca, partly because of its loca- a product made using pine resin.8 Both were used in the tion as a crossroads of maritime routes and partly because naval industry, so their extraction was banned and a li- the island’s agricultural output did not ensure a sufficient cence was needed to transport them to Christian, but not food supply for its population.5 Muslim, destinations. There is abundant information The conquest of the Kingdom of Valencia took much demonstrating that this was one of the products constant- longer; there were uprisings and more years were needed ly present in 13th century exports. A specialised and high- to stabilise this region. Yet the structures of the new ly prized crop, saffron, began to gain prominence in the Christian society were gradually put into place. Regarding same century.9 commerce, first there was a war or rapine economy, with The entry of the Kingdom of Valencia into the Catalan the sale of Saracen prisoners as captives. Afterwards the commercial sphere signalled a major boost in agricultural internal Valencian trade routes were organised, along products which became highly successful exports, such as with exchanges with Catalonia and Mallorca, which en- rice, dried figs and raisins, and it reinforced the stocks of sured the development of a single commercial area. The nuts, such as almonds, which were also produced in Mal- gradual internationalisation of Valencia’s trade got un- lorca and Catalonia and had begun to be exported in the derway in the early 14th century. 13th century along with hazelnuts and pine nuts, highly characteristic crops from Catalonia,10 while wine from Morvedre had been exported since the 14th century. The The supply of specialised agricultural or southern reaches of Valencia contributed dates, which manufactured products: The key to the had previously only been available from the Maghreb; development of Catalan commerce scarlet, a highly prized dye for luxury clothing extracted from an insect, the kermes; safflower, also called bastard Catalan commerce managed to overcome two initial saffron, whose capitulum or flower receptacle was used to handicaps. The first was that the Genovese, Pisans, Vene- make dyes and whose seeds were used to make an oil used tians and even Occitanians were already entrenched in in pharmaceutical products; soda-ash, a product made the most prosperous markets, and the second was the lack from burning barilla, which was used to make soap and to of important raw materials or many manufactured goods, manufacture glass.11 Likewise, Valencia provided crops of which required the Catalans to redistribute products Oriental species like cumin and anise seed in the 14th from abroad, leading to lower profit margins. Catalan century and sugar in the 15th century.12 merchants overcame the first difficulty with dedication Mallorca, like Catalonia, contributed some wool pro- and effort; they were no doubt able to take advantage of duction, although Menorca wool was more important in the gaps left in the markets at certain times by the wars terms of quality and began to be exported at the end of the among their competitors, and starting in the 13th century 14th century. This period, too, witnessed the consolida- they also had the steadfast support of the monarchy both tion of the major wool production and distribution centre diplomatically and in terms of trade regulations, with in the Maestrat region in the Kingdom of Valencia.13 In protective measures and provisions that created a favour- the 15th century, Mallorca also exported a lot of oil.

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