At the end of the first Millennium A.D., trade in Constantinople was administrated and disciplined, specifically regarding: strategic sectors of the economy; essential services in daily life; and finally goods with a symbolic value, among...
moreAt the end of the first Millennium A.D., trade in Constantinople was administrated and disciplined, specifically regarding: strategic sectors of the economy; essential services in daily life; and finally goods with a symbolic value, among which purple-coloured silk.
The production chain of the latter, even if belonging to a particular segment of the market, as a luxury item, was widely and stringently regulated in a normative text: the so-called Book of the Eparch, which outlined the tasks of the highest imperial official, responsible for the supervision of the Guilds; at the same time revealing some of the political and economic dynamics of the Byzantine Empire with their consequences on Private Law.
