Privilege granted by Andronic II to Catalan merchants

Date: 1296

Archive: Municipal Archive of Barcelona

Document type: Textual

Reference code: CAT-AHCB-AHCB1-002-1A-0199 // CAT-AHCB-AHCB1-002-1A-0200

Link to the online document

Description: The emperor of the Greeks Andronicus II Paleologus grants the inhabitants of Barcelona, Aragon, Catalonia, Majorca, Valencia, Tortosa and other dominions of the king of Aragon and Sicily the privilege of trading freely and safely both in Constantinople and in other lands of his empire, paying a trade duty of 3% both on entry and exit. This privilege meant the definitive push for the Catalan presence on the commercial routes of the Eastern Mediterranean, routes that in recent years had been mainly occupied by Mallorcan merchants. The link between Catalonia and the Roman Empire was strengthened in military terms when in 1303 Andronic II hired the Great Catalan Company of Roger de Flor to fight the Turks on the borders of his empire. The commercial relationship was confirmed a few years later, in 1315, with a new privilege from Andronic II to the Catalans, in which he reiterated the concession of free trade throughout his domains (privilege also preserved in the AHCB).
Apart from the historical interest of the document, it also has a diplomatic value due to the fact that two originals are preserved, one written in Greek and the other in Latin, which contain exactly the same text, and because of the emperor’s characteristic signature, in large letters written in red ink above the text.

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