The eastern Roman Empire and the rise of Venice.

Abstract Providing a situation of the eastern Roman Empire after Emperor Justinian died, the chapters also gives summary of the economic growth of various European countries in the middle ages. There were many other maritime republics that arose in Italy during the Middle Ages other than Venice. These included Genoa, Pisa, Ragusa (now Dubrovnik), Gaeta, Ancona and Noli. The most powerful were Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi, who carried on extensive trade across the Mediterranean and built strong navies for protection and conquest. Venice came to dominate Adriatic trade, while Pisa and Genoa focused their trade more heavily on Western Europe. Aside from these, it was also high time for the western maritime trade since the Black Sea area was particularly important to Constantinople as a source of grain, fish and salt, and to a much lesser extent spices and silks. Its importance as a source of spices and silk had been greatly diminished over the last century due to the unrest in Central Asia leading to the breakup of the Silk Routes and the shift in the spice trade from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea resulting from the political instability of the Abbasid Caliphate. The chapters also gave a summary how the economic relations between Venice and the Byzantine Empire led to war and the sacking of Constantinople.