Consideraciones creativas

3 1401.ix.10 = Dennis, 'Three Reports', no.l, clause 7, p.246.

presumably covered in the previous phrase by the word

bladum1. That there could be a difference between frumentum

and bladum seems confirmed by a clause in the 1278 list of complaints by Venetians against Byzantium. Stefano Gondem went to Constantinople with his ship loaded with "frumento et ordeo" but was prevented from selling or doing anything with "ipso blando". He, in consequence, suffered loss, the greater part of the "frumentum et ordeum" being destroyed. Stefano claimed damages for his ship and for the "frumento et ordeo"2. Here it appears as if bladum was a more general term than frumentum and could mean both grain/corn and barley. In both the 1277 chrysobul of Michael VIII and in the treaty of 1285 between Venice and Byzantium, Venetians were granted freedom to enter the Empire from the Black sea "cum frumento vel blado ...et frumento seu alio blado"3.

Frumento was thus here a type of blado while blado had a more

general meaning. This meaning also appears in a document dating from 1345 in which the Venetian Senate, discussing the Byzantine attempt to impose tax on grain imported from

1 1331.iv.13 = Zachariadou, Trade and Crusade,

doc.l331M, clause 3, p.187: "...duo per centinario, excepto comerclo et solutione bladi et leguminum, bobum, equorum et sclavorum. Et non debeant solvere in omnibus terris dicti admirati comerchium vel dacia nisi una vice, etiam si ipsi portarent merces suas in pluribus terris. Et de frumento debeant solvere aspros duos pro modio et de ordeo et legumine asprum unum pro modio et de bove aspros duos, de equos aspros tres et de sclavo aspros decem pro quolibet predictorum".

2 1278.iii. = Tafel-Thomas, Urkunden, III, no.370, p.240.

3 1277.iii.19 = Tafel-Thomas, Urkunden, III, no. 368, p.144; 1285.vi.15 = ibid, no.378, p.332.

Turchia, refered to "frumentum et omni aliud bladum"1. In the complaint of Petro Castolum and Andrea Vendelino against the Byzantines, their ship was loaded with "frumento et milio et fabis". The ship was captured at Ania and taken to Butrino and almost all the "blando" off-loaded. The merchants lost "frumenti, milio et fabis". Afterwards the ship "cum aliqua parte dicti blandi" was returned and they included in their claim for damages the expenses incurred in getting back "dicta navi et blando illo pauco"2. Here bladum does appear to have a more general meaning than frumentum, including on this occasion grain/corn, millet (milium) and beans (f a b a ). From these examples it appears that bladum was a general term for grain while frumentum was more specific, meaning wheat.

Granum was commonly used and seems to be equivalent to frumentum. It is translated by Evans as wheat3. That granum

was distinct from bladum is indicated by the different treatment in Pegolotti of two distinct commodities. Pegolotti refers to blado being sold in and exported from Theologos while also discussing the expenses involved in taking grano out of the same area4.

It is quite clear that ordeum and frumentum were distinct commodities, though often cited together in the

1 1345.i.24 = Chrysosytomides, “Venetian Commercial Privileges’, doc.3, p.332.

2 1278.iii. = Tafel-Thomas, Urkunden, III, no.370, pp.243-244.

3 Pegolotti, p.420. 4 Pegolotti, p.56.

sources. The phrase "frumento et ordeo" appears in the complaint of Giovanni Barocio, robbed when going to Negroponte with his ship loaded with "frumento et ordeo et aliis mercationibus" and in a complaint of Giovanni de Pagano whose ship too was loaded with "frumento et ordeo"1. In the treaties between Venice and Mente^e of 1331, 1337, 1375, 1403 and 1407 frumentum was charged a customs tax of two aspers per modio while ordeum was charged at a rate of one asper per

modio2. Granum was also something clearly different from

ordeum. In the 1387 treaty between Murad I and the Genoese,

the Genoese were to be taxed at a reduced rate for "grani ordei milli et alliorum leguminum"3. Bladum too was distinct from ordeum. In the complaint of Antonio Squaia against the customs officials of Mesembria over "frumento et ordeo pro comerclo, accepto sibi de ipso blando per illos de Mesembria et de ordeo multo sibi accepto. per lo Mangatriarcha, ..., et propter moram, quam fecerat ibi per VIII dies mandato dicti Mengatriarche cum alio blando contra suam voluntatem", bladum and ordeum appear as two distinct items4.

Of the three terms commonly used in the Latin sources,

1 1278.iii. = Tafel-Thomas, Urkunden, III, no.370, pp.180, 233. See also ibid, p.240.

2 1331.iv.13 = Zachariadou, Trade and Crusade,

doc.l331M, clause 3, p.187, 1337.pre iv. = ibid, doc.l337M, clause 20, p.198, 1375.iv.22 = ibid, doc.l375M, clause 20, p.222, 1403.vii.24 = ibid, doc.l403M, 1403M DVL, clause 20, p.230, 1407.vi.2 = ibid, doc.l407M, clause 20, 236.

3 1387.vi.8 = ASG, Archivio Segretto, Materie Politiche 2729, no.26; Fleet, 'Treaty1, clause 5, p.15.

4 1278.iii. = Tafel-Thomas, Urkunden, III, no.370, p.246. Mangatriarcha was the Greek official,

Megatriesarcham, ibid.

frumentum and granum appear to have had the same meaning,

wheat, while bladum was a wider term for grain in general. It is not possible to be precise about the type of grain involved when the term used is bladum or semen, another term similar in scope, as in the phrase "frumentum et alia semina"1. But the two words commonly applied in the Latin sources to grain exported from Turchia, granum and frumentum, allow one to suggest that what western Anatolia exported mostly was wheat, together with barley (ordeum). That western Anatolia was predominantly a wheat and barley producing area is supported by A§ikpa?azade1s reference to Bayezid's troops buying wheat ("bugday") and barley ("arpa") in Konya around 797-8/1394-52. This is also supported by Gregoras’ s use of the word cti t o c when talking of the grain of

Turchia3.

Perhaps of the two, wheat was the more important4. In the early part of the reign of Mehmed II, the Sultan ordered infidels of the hass villages of Constantinople and Galata to

1 1304.iii. = Belgrano, 'Documenti', no.10, p.109. 2 A^ikpa^azade, (Giese), pp.64-65; (Istanbul), pp.71-72.

3 Gregoras, II, p.687, 1.

4 This was certainly the case in north eastern Anatolia