The Economic History of Byzantium - Dumbarton Oaks

1008 NICOLAS OIKONOMIDES
merkion was not an import duty; it was probably a charge payable by those who used
the market, but for reasons of convenience it was collected when the goods were imported
and might be refunded when unsold goods were reexported.
There is no way of calculating how important the kommerkion was for the state budget.
Many scholars have assumed that the state revenue from it must have been considerable,
but we have no certain figures. The few texts at our disposal seem to indicate
that the overall level of sales and purchases was comparatively restricted, even in Constantinople,
until the tenth century. Furthermore, an official text of 911/12 seems to
imply that the kommerkion in Mesopotamia yielded about 20 litrai of gold (1,440 nomismata)
per year, while that of Chaldia yielded approximately half that sum. 92 Bearing
in mind that both these provinces were at the ends of the great roads leading from
Persia into Asia Minor, it is surprising to find that the turnover of the importers from
the East was so small. The sum cited is too small even if we hypothesize that it concerned
only such merchandise as was consumed locally and not that dispatched to the
center, on which the kommerkion would be paid when it reached the Constantinople
area.
There can be no doubt that the movement of goods was subject to other charges
connected with the circulation of persons and commodities, with the means of transportation,
and with the sale of goods. References to these charges come largely from
subsequent periods and are dealt with below, particularly in view of the fact that their
economic significance was relatively restricted.
Also of limited importance were certain other items of state revenue, to which I shall
simply refer. Fines were paid directly into the imperial vestiarion (or the sakelle); 93 the
state could lay claim to, and often received, one-half of all treasure found by private
citizens; 94 and the emperor retained for himself one-third, and later one-fifth, of all
spoils of war. It is impossible to estimate the significance of this revenue for the state,
although scholars presume that it must have been marginal. I shall not, consequently,
be dealing with it here.
The Sale of Titles and Allowances
Among the most important sources of revenuefor the state was the attraction of private
capital on the basis of the system of life-tenured administrative posts and titles of
honor. We know of this system from the tenth century thanks to some texts from the
Peri basileiou taxeos, 95 and we also know that it continued in force unchanged into the
eleventh century, at which time it went through a profound crisis and was abolished.
92 De cer., 1:697; cf. Laiou, “Exchange and Trade,” 735–36.
93 To the sakelle in 897, to the vestiarion after 1007 (Lavra, 1: no. 1, line 29, and Iviron, no. 12,
line 29).
94 C. Morrisson, “La découverte des trésors à l’époque byzantine: Théorie et pratique de l’eu”resi"
qhsaurou',” TM 8 (1981): 321–43.
95 De cer. 1:692–94, studied in depth by P. Lemerle, “Roga et rente d’etat aux Xe–XIe siècle,” REB
25 (1967): 77–100.