Trade privileges

"...And he (Alexius I Comnenus, by chrysobull in 1082) granted the Venetians all the stores extending from the old Jewish wharf (in Constantinople)... But most significant of all was the fact that he permitted free trade with all areas under Byzantine dominion, so that they could trade as they wished with ease, without paying a single coin in duties or other taxes or being controlled by anyone."

(Anna Comnena, Alexiad VI, B. Leib, vol. ΙΙ, Paris 1943, pp. 54-55 - in Greek)

These increased trade privileges often provoked reactions among the Byzantines, who saw the consolidation of the Venetian element as a threat to the imperial economy. Nevertheless, the economic and military vulnerability of the empire forced later rulers to renew the above privileges.