The Crusades, the Genoese and the Latin East - DSpace at ...

This paragraph is a conspicuous presentation of the Genoese commitment to the count in
exchange for the privileges that he granted them. This charter was handed to the Genoese consuls
Lamberto Fornario and Belmusto Lercario, who were the appointed Genoese consuls in the Latin
East for a period of one year, from the autumn of 1203. As will be demonstrated in Chapter Five,
the mission of these Genoese consuls represented the highest diplomatic level sent from Genoa to
the Latin East since the time of the Third Crusade. Lamberto Fornario was a very experienced
merchant, whose career can be traced as early as 1191, when he was still very young and was
required to make his contracts with the permission of his father. 217
In 1203, however, Lamberto
sailed on the Donna to Ultramare. In Lamberto's contract with the shipowner from 18 September
1203 he secured ten places on the Donna. It was further agreed that when the ship returned to
Genoa it would be loaded with 100 canterata (contaria / cantaria) of goods sent by him from the
Latin East. Interestingly, half of the freight was to be cotton and the other half contained various
other merchandise (aliis mercibus) 218 Is this an indication of the Lamberto's plan to purchase
cotton in Aleppo? It is hard to answer this question because notarial evidence reveals that cotton
had been imported from the ports of the kingdom of Jerusalem long before 1203. Many Genoese
contracts contain evidence of trade in cotton219 In 1186 and 1190, there is a clear reference to
cotton of Ultramare and Sicily being purchased in Genoa. 20 David Abulafia argued that `in the
twelfth century, the Genoese were still able to export very significant amounts of cotton from
Sicily, and it is possible that at this stage it was cotton rather than grain that drew them so
enthusiastically into treaty relations with the Norman kings of Sicily from 1156 onwards, though
it is generally agreed that the quality of Sicilian cotton remained relatively low. '221 However,
according to Abulafia there was `serious contraction of cotton production in Sicily after about
1200. '222 This shortage of cotton supply might explain some of the urgency in the agreement with
Bohemond and ultimately with Aleppo. As David Abulafia demonstrated `it was Egypt, Syria and
ultimately India that became the major sources for raw cotton. '223 Significantly, Genoa was
operating under another economic pressure which was the loss of access to Constantinople in
1203, a destination which previously served as one of Genoa's central economic destinations.
Maureen Mazzaoui examined the Italian cotton industry in this period. Mazzaoui wrote that
217 GC, nos. 117,118,119, from 23 January 1191
218 GG, no. 612, from 18 September 1203. See Nilo Calvini, Nuovo glossario medievale Ligure (Genoa,
1984), "cantarius" and "contarium", pp. 94,130.
219
Documents from 1182 and 1184 do not mention the origin of the cotton which could have been imported
from Sicily too. See, for example, OS, 1182, cart. 2, p. 8V, 12R, 20V, or OS, 1184, cart. 2 p. 137R.
220 OS, 1186, no. 326; 05,1190, no. 248
221 David Abulafia, `Industrial Products: the Middle Ages', in Simonetta Cavaciocchi (ed. ), Prodotti e
techniche d'Oltremare nelle economie europee, secc. XIII XVIII (Florence, 1998), p. 340
2221bid
p. 338.
223
Ibid, p. 340.
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