CHAP. III. § 2. The treaty of alliance which Michael VIII. had entered into with the Genoese, before the recovery of Constantinople from the Latins and Venetians, conceded excessive commercial privileges to the republicans. Subsequent grants placed them in possession of Galata, and rendered them masters of a large part of the port of Constantinople. Their own activity and daring enabled them to convert this factory into a fortress under the eyes of the Byzantine emperor, and within a few hundred yards of the palace of Boukoleon. New factories on the northern shores of the Black Sea soon became even more important for their commerce than the colony of Galata ; and the trade they carried on from Caffa and Tana was of such value, that Caffa became the greatest commercial factory, and the most valuable foreign colony, of the republic. The advantages the Genoese derived from these establishments enabled them to extend their commerce, until it far exceeded that of any other power.1 Their long chain of factories, from Chias and Phokaia to Caffa and Tana, gave them the power of supplying every market both of Asia, Europe, and Africa, more speedily, and at a cheaper rate, than their Pisan, Catalan, and Venetian rivals. When they feared that the mercantile competition of rival traders was becoming too keen, their turbulent disposition led them to plunge into open hostilities with the party whose commercial activity alarmed them. Their insolence increased with their prosperity, and at last they aspired at securing to themselves a monopoly of the Black Sea trade. To carry their project into execution, it was necessary to obtain from the emperor of Trebizond all the privileges in his dominions which they enjoyed in the empire of Constan 1 Every commercial people was eager to participate in this trade, and Nicephorus Gregoras, p. 60, informs us that the sultan of Egypt obtained from the emperor of Constantinople the right of sending annually two ships into the Black Sea. One of the principal objects of commerce for the sultan was male and female slaves; and this was an article of export the Genoese did not neglect. tinople. They had already formed an establishment at A. D. Daphnous, the anchorage of Trebizond, where the eastern 1306-1316. suburb overhangs the beach; and if they could obtain the permission to fortify this position, they would have rendered themselves as completely independent of the government at Trebizond, as their fortress of Galata made them of the government at Constantinople. To obtain their object, they commenced disputing with the imperial officers, hoping to find a pretext for employing force whenever a favourable opportunity presented itself. They denied the title of the revenue officers to open their merchandise, in order to levy the transit-duties, and they made the amount of these duties a constant subject of contestation. They expected in this way to induce the emperor to agree to a commutation of the transitduties into a regular tribute of a fixed amount, which they regarded as the first step to the formation of an independent colony. These disputes lasted several years. A formal embassy was at last sent from Genoa to Alexios II., to demand the conclusion of a commercial treaty on the same terms as that which the republic had concluded with the emperor of Constantinople, whom the government of Genoa affected to regard as the suzerain of Trebizond. The ambassadors declared that unless the Genoese merchants were freed from the examination of their goods in levying the transit-duties, and allowed to farm the tax for a fixed sum, they would quit the dominions of Alexios and transfer their commercial establishments to the neighbouring states. The admission of this pretension would have greatly curtailed the revenues of the empire, and would have placed the Genoese in the possession of immense warehouses, into which the imperial authorities would have had no right to enter. These buildings, from their very nature and extent, would have soon formed a fortified quarter. The Genoese would then have repaired the ruins of Leonto § 2. CHAP. III. kastron, overlooking the port in the position now occupied by the Lazaretto; and the emperor of Trebizond, in the old fortress and citadel, would have sunk into a mere vassal of the republic.1 The proposals of the Genoese were peremptorily rejected by Alexios; and, in refusing their demands, he added that they were all at perfect liberty to depart with all their property as soon as they paid the duties on the merchandise then in his dominions. The emperor knew well that, if they withdrew from Trebizond, their place would be immediately occupied by the Venetians, Pisans, or Catalans. The Genoese, enraged at the prompt rejection of their terms, acted with violence and precipitation. They were always the most reckless and quarrelsome of merchants, and ever ready to balance their books with the sword. They began immediately to embark their property without offering to pay any duties. This was opposed by the imperial officers of the revenue, and a battle was the consequence. The Genoese, pressed by numbers, set fire to the houses of the Greeks towards the Hippodrome, (Meidan,) expecting to distract the attention of their enemies and impede the arrival of troops from the citadel. Their infamous conduct was severely punished. The variable state of the wind drove the fire in the direction they least expected it, and, descending the hill to the port, it destroyed the greater part of the merchandise about which the battle had arisen, and laid the warehouses of the Genoese in ashes. This unfortunate result of their passion brought the traders to their 1 The Genoese appear to have acquired the property of Leontokastron previous to or during these quarrels; but they had been able to fortify it in a way to resist Alexios. The present lazaretto is constructed on the ruins of the palace of a pasha, built out of the remains of Leontokastron, of which some foundations may be traced. The palace was destroyed by order of the Porte, in consequence of the strength of the position. It appears that an old castle had occupied the site before the establishment of the Genoese at Trebizond, and that it had fallen to ruin. It was repaired and strengthened by Alexios, in consequence of these disputes with the republic; but in the year 1349 it was surrendered to the Genoese by the emperor Michael, shortly before he was dethroned, and remained in their hands until the fall of the empire. POPULATION OF TREBIZOND. 413 § 2. senses. They felt that they had suffered a far greater CHAP. III. loss than it was in their power, under any circumstances, to inflict on their enemy. The destruction of their goods would serve as a premium to other merchants, and quicken the eagerness of the rival Italian republics to supplant them. Very little hesitation on their part, therefore, was likely to place either the Venetians or the Pisans in possession of the profitable trade they were on the eve of losing, after having long enjoyed almost a monopoly of its advantages. In this critical conjuncture they forgot their passion and their pride, and hastened to conclude peace with Alexios, on condition that they should be allowed to resume their usual trade on the previous terms. Alexios prudently consented to this demand; and a treaty was signed by which the Genoese were allowed to re-establish themselves at Trebizond. But they were compelled to quit the position occupied by the warehouses that had been burnt, and form their new quarter deeper in the bay at the Darsena. Their industry soon enabled them to repair their losses; and these indefatigable merchants grew richer and more powerful from year to year, while the Greeks became as rapidly poorer, and saw their political influence hourly decline. The summit of the position previously occupied by the Genoese was fortified by Alexios II., who repaired the ruins of an old castle, called Leontokastron, as a check on the naval power of the republicans.1 The Greeks in general had now lost much of their taste for naval affairs, as well as that skill which had made them, in the early part of the middle ages, the rulers of the sea.2 The people of Trebizond had participated in 1 Pachymeres, ii. 310, places these events in the year 1306; Panaretos, whose chronology is more to be depended on, in the year 1311.-Chron. Trapez., p. 363, edit. Tafel. Fallmerayer, Original-Fragmente, ii. Abth. p. 15, informs us that a copy of the treaty which put an end to this contest exists in the archives of Turin. It is dated at Trebizond the 9th June 1315, and ratified by the republic of Genoa the 16th March 1316. 2 Constantinus Porphyr, De Them, p. 58, edit. Bonn. $ 2. CHAP. III. the national decay. The city was filled with that inert population which congregates round an idle and luxurious court, when the sovereign or the government expends immense revenues, extracted from the industry of an extensive realm, within the walls of a palace or a single city. In such a state of things men's minds are turned away from every useful occupation and enterprising course of life. Wealth and distinction are more easily gained by haunting the antechambers of the palace, or frequenting the offices of the ministers, than by any honest exertion in private undertakings. The merchant is generally despised as a sordid inferior, and exposed to insult, peculation, and injustice. Merit cannot even make its way without favour, either in the military or naval service. A large body of the populace lives without exertion, by performing menial service about the dwellings of the courtiers, or acting as military retainers and instruments of pomp to the nobles. The public taxes and private rents, levied from the agricultural classes in the provinces, supplied to a certain number of favoured individuals the means of perpetuating a life of worthlessness and power. Such was the state of Greek society in the city of Trebizond. In the Mohammedan city of Sinope everything was different. There, valour and military skill were the shortest road to riches and distinction. But as the continent offered no field of conquest to the small force at the disposal of the emir of Sinope, his attention, and that of his people, was directed to naval affairs. The Black Sea became the scene of their enterprises. Every merchant-ship was the object of their covetousness. rich commerce of the Christians, joined to the skill and bravery of the Italian mariners, made the war against the trade of the western nations a profitable but dangerous occupation. This very danger, however, tended to make it an honourable employment in the eyes of the Mussulmans of Sinope. The merchant-ships of this age were The |