Pepper and Reprisals between Poland and Pera (1452)
Abstract
This paper takes as a case study, a trade dispute that occurred in 1452 between Genoese, Polish, and Wallachian, merchants in the Latin enclave of Pera Constantinople. Taking place just a year before the city fell to the Ottomans, this study offers a snap shot into the dying days of the tangled web of relationships and legal processes that underlay the trade route from Lviv to the Bosphorus. The paper explores the unhappy travels of Johannes Simiefal, a burgher of Lviv, who sought to ship a load of black pepper from Bursa. While transiting through Pera, his journey was interrupted by a group of enraged Genoese merchants. These men seized Simiefal’s property in an act of reprisal for a load of furry hats which they claimed had been stollen from them by his countrymen. The legal case that then wound up before the Podesta of Pera revealed a series of misidentifications, interlocking ownership agreements, and illegal seizures, that exposes much about the way trade was conducted between Eastern Europe and the Black Sea at the time. By reading between the lines of the byplay of interests and accusation the framework of trade and law, origin and identity navigated by merchants is unveiled.
Keywords:
reprisal, Wallachia, trade, law, Genoa, identity, MoldaviaReferences
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