On the Byzantine Trade with Venice and Genoa and Its Implications

BIC 3532

This paper shall consider the effects that Byzantine trade had upon the Italian City States in the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance, with a specific focus on the two most dominant of the city states, Venice, and Milan. This effect shall be observed specifically in six ways. The first way is the first major intervention of the Byzantine Empire in Italian affairs, in the Upper Middle Ages. The second way is through an examination on the ideal government of the Byzantine Empire, and Byzantine critiques of the Italian City States, in comparison to the ideal, from the Upper Middle Ages, to the Renaissance. The third way is through the rise of trade contracts in Venice. The fourth way is the implicit nature of the priority of the trade business in patrician life. The fifth way is the influence that the Byzantine Empire had on the art of Genoa. The sixth way is the Genoese conquest of Chios, and the trade of the spice, mastic.