Chapter 6 The Export of Soap and Olive Oil from the Port of Famagusta in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
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Abstract
Soap and olive oil, the latter an essential ingredient in the manufacture of soap, were manufactured in Tunisia, Mamluk Egypt and Syria, Italy and in Rhodes, as well as Cyprus, in short throughout the Mediterranean. The focus here is on the quantities and monetary value of the soap and olive oil exported from the port of Famagusta, the investors and carriers involved in its export, the destinations to which the soap and olive oil were sent, the apportionment of the profits, the taxes levied on the manufacture and export of soap and the disputes this could engender. Finally, comparisons are made with Venetian Crete and with Rhodes under Hospitaller rule, which likewise manufactured and exported soap in the 15th century. The source materials utilized are chiefly the published notarial deeds of Genoese and Venetian notaries working on Cyprus during the 14th and 15th centuries and the published Rhodian documents from the archival collections of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John, covering the early to mid-15th century.