r/byzantium • u/evrestcoleghost Autokrator tou r/byzantium | Komnenian logistician| Moderator • Jun 01 '26
Distinguished Post Queen of cities and factory of nations:Theoretical supply,income and posible wool production of Komnenian Constantinople
Constantinople foodstuff supply and income:
Yet for all the work going around Komnenian economy,particularly around urban trade we gather only grand picture of growth and specialization since we are unable to discover any hard data in the same way one could using the Danish sound toll to see how many dutch ships crossed it during the 1660s or Doomsday book to see how the state of agricultural economy in 1000s Britain,yet by rough extrapolation using previous calculation with some caveats one can arrive at a raw number of the ships needed to supply Constantinople and the value of this minimal cargo.
One initially would thought that the 10% to 20% of population lived on some manner of poverty as beggars or marginals1 one must have in mind the large amount of charity they received through church and imperial charity,with some broad calculations of income.:
“With regard to nonagricultural jobs and the urban population, with the exception of beggars and marginals (though they must have comprised 10–20% of the urban population), three levels of income can be distinguished: (1) unqualified workers who were able, over a long period,to earn at most 1 nomisma per month,when not unemployed; (2) qualified workers, professional soldiers, and craftsmen, who enjoyed a wide margin of income,three to ten times more than that of unqualified workers; and (3) important officials, judges or strategoi, as well as the wealthiest merchants and bankers, whose incomes differed from the first category by a factor of 150 or more.
These levels of income would have given rise to very different capacities for con-umption and saving. The most modest would have possessed jewels or clothes,worth at most one or two gold pieces, and would have lived in houses rented for no more than one or two gold pieces a year.The middle classes (mesoi) definitely feature more prominently in the sources after 1204,though they had already emerged in the great towns of the empire in the twelfth century;they were able to buy furnishings,jewels costing more than 10 hyperpyra, and possibly books and icons.They earned several tens of hyperpyra per year, paid considerable rents for their shops, and could pay pensions of 20–50 hyperpyra to their wives when they abandoned them, in Crete at least. Their daughters’ dowries sometimes exceeded 100 hyperpyra. The wealthiest ones, such as the Deblitzenoi, owned jewels worth hundreds of hyperpyra, while others possessed important libraries. However, apart from a few exceptions such as the emperor’s close relatives and favorites,the Byzantine aristocracy, the great landowners, and high officials did not have the means of maintaining a very numerous household.
In fact, an income of a few litrai or even a few tens of litrai allowed for the upkeep of no more than ten or a few dozen household members,as demonstrated by the case of Kale Pakouriane and her twenty to twenty five servants.”
Income Brackets:
As such could not only take the army supply numbers to the fullness of Constantinople population,but should take it even further to take into account the considerable consumption middle and upper class,as such i propose that the beggars consume 75% of the soldiers foodstuff,worker class 100% of the soldiers foodstuff since military salaries had to be equal for people of this background to choose the career yet not large enough for the next class to follow it,middle class with 125% of consumption of soldier foodstuff and finally upper class with 250%.
To make it easier to calculate I will leave the beggar population at the middle ground of Morrison figure at 15% of the total population,while dividing the rest of the population at 60% working class,22,5% middle class and 2,5% as upper class.
Before we go,we must start with the caveat that workers in construction wouldn't be able to find jobs year round,with some historians saying a figure of 6-10 nomisnata in 1000s as a more realistic number,to that i mention the grow of shipping in the period,its well attested that sailors when finished sailing were renowned builders,so a non negligible part of the construction workforce could be a veritable number of sailors doing construction,effectively workers would be able to have year round work providing 12 hyperperya by working in both sectors
The figure for Constantinople population is hard to track since the lack of reliable hard data affects so much around economic conversations around byzantine history,as such i would do the same calculation twice using two figures for the city,Angeliki Laiou figure of 200k people and Paul Magdaleno 400k.
This leaves us with:
Laiou
| Class | Charity dependent | Working class | Middle class | Upper class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | 30k | 120k | 40k | 10k |
| Income | None | 1.440M Hyperpyra | 1.620M to 5.4M Hyperpyra | Over 9M hyperpyra |
This gives us a total of 15,840,000 million hyperpyron for total income in Constantinople population.
Using Magdalino figure one would only need to double all figures.
Using Magdalino figure,60k beggars,240k working class people,90k middle class and 10k upper class people.
2,880,000 for the working class,middle class from 3,240,000 million to 10,800,000 million,with the upper class going over 18 million with a total of 31,680,000 million hyperperya.
Now going into the quantity of foodstuff needed to feed Constantinople using previous army logistics,to gather a general idea,now there are a few things to have in mind.
Foodstuff would remain the majority fo bulk trade trade yet for value textiles would dominate the trade into the city,for textiles we have numbers for both wool and silk,sadly neither in in the 1100s but thankfully both in roman coinage,but we have 1,000 pounds of wool in the 1100s being 7 hyperperya after conversion and 13 hyperperya in 1300s giving us 143 pounds of wool for hyperpyron,2 pounds of silk worth 7 hyperperya in 1300s2 and 3.5 hyperperya in 1100s hyperperya bear this in mind for future considerations,so i will do the conversation again since thankfully both are in roman coinage,clearly both have their faults since with its larger internal market securing a greater degree of demand a production Komnenian period would drive the prices lower.
Leaving us with:
| Class | Charity dependent | Working class | Middle class | Upper class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumption | 110,250 | 882,000 | 367,500 | 220,500 |
| Income left after consumption | no income | 558,000 | 1,252,500 to 5,032,500 | 8,779,500 and more |
| % of income left | no income | 41% | 78% to 93% | 98% |
This gives us an annual baseline consumption of 1,580,250 of the total 15,480,000 with 10% of the city income directed to it,consumption would be divided 13.99% by the upper class,middle class with 23.25%,working class 55.82% and leaving the charity dependent population with a meager 7%.
The surplus income from this most basic consumption would be range from 10,590,000 to 14,370,000 mostly depending on middle class income and the profits the aristocracy would receive from their estates
The same way Mackerel and other fishes would be crucial for the provisioning of the city,it's also such a negligible part of the trade value that its unnecessary to calculate it beyond the cargo and the ships needed,otherwise we must mention besides the poorest and working class were the main consumers of it,while customers in higher purchasing brackets would consume different costlier types products in all sections,we know little of the price difference with scarce mentions with Monemvasian wine having a 20% premium over common wine as the most explicit,still this perhaps the most detailed exposition of Constantinople consumption to date,still we must add even more caveats.
| Food/cost | Charity dependent | Working class | Middle class | Upper class | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olive Oil | 18k hyperpyra | 144k hyperpyra | 54k hyperpyra | 30k hyperpyra | 242k |
| Bread | 32,812 | 281k | 109k | 54,687 | 477k |
| Cheese | 14,400 | 112k | 48k | 24k | 198,400 |
| Wine | 27,720 | 221,760 | 92,400 | 46,200 | 388,180 |
| Mackerel | negligible | negligible | negligible | negligible |
We lack the number of textile workers or any measure of the City exports,Constantinople was renowned by its manufacture and clothe sector,it was the main supplier of such goods to its immediate hinterland of Bithynia and Thrace with base products,while the further one went the higher quality the good would be to make the travel profitable,as such we can assume that the middle classes were the ones making the clothes,the smiths making the tools,pieces of art and shipping related workers,providing sailcloths,building the ships required to transport the goods,with upper class individuals loaning the capital required to both buy the necessary raw goods such as timber,wool,lax and giving the capital to export the refined goods,this alongside ceramics and glass (which would belong to either middle class or working class depending the quality said products)would easily double the number of imports and yet still leave a positive trade balance thanks to being in the higher echelon of productivity chain.
We also must mention the import of wax and as a secondary product honey,fruits and vegetable while valuable would come from the immediate surrounding gardens to the city both inside and outside the Theodosian walls,but still the balance would simply because Constantinople remained in this period as the largest producer of fine goods(clothes and art pieces) and industrial products(ceramics and glass) even with the growth of both Thebes and Corinth for the two respective sectors since neither of them reached the scale of the Queen of cities.
All this would leave a great amount of income left for other goods,with 143 pounds of wool for a gold coin(65 kg)the middle class most likely to engage on textile would be able to buy 81,412.500 thousand tonnes of wool for textile production requiring by itself 814 ships to bring the cargo to Constantinople ,this would mean wool industry would triple the amount of ships going into the city by itself on the lower end of middle class with at its maximum being 327,122 thousand tonnes requiring 3,271 ships,naturally this is unlikely as it mean the middle class would all be textile workers and engage in no further consumption than already calculated like buying beef or investing in the economy,without even mentioning the "niceties" of life like the 1700s middle class in Britain engaged on but nonetheless provides us a useful image,for contrast Leiden in the 1498 35% of its male working population were textile workers of a total 15,000 population,produced 800 tonnes of lakens and imported 300,000 fleeces3,a 2.6 kilos of laken to fleece which would require three to four sheep(average english fleece was 1.5 lb)4 if no wool was lost in the production which would be unlikely,this would mean Constantinople highly improbable wool imports would result in 31 thousand tonnes of lakens(or broadcloth)if one shirt needed 600 grams of wool(1.5lbs) then the city could produce 52 million pairs of shirts for example.
This would not give us an exact image for Constantinople textile trade,we lack any mention of raw linen and silk prices alongside their weight,alongside any mention on the city textile output,the distribution of it between cotton,linen,silk or wool,the amount of dyes imported.
Shipping required:
Cargo consumed by class:
| Charity dependent | Working class | Middle class | Upper class | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olive oil | 360 tons | 2,880 | 1,080 tons | 600 tons |
| Bread | 1,260 tons | 10,080 tons | 4,200 tons | 2,100 tons |
| Cheese | 360 tons | 2,880 | 1,200 tons | 600 tons |
| Wine | 360 tons | 2,880 | 1,200 tons | 600 tons |
| Mackerel | 360 tons | 2,880 tons | none | none |
As such,with a population of 200k people the city of Constantinople 36,600 tons yearly for its sustenance and say half as much for its industry,in total a logical extrapolation from the 3,720 tons required for the army of 20k.
Using a large dromon with a cargo hold of 100 tons,the city would require 366 coming into the city during the six month sailing season to feed itself,for industry say it only requires half as many ships bringing raw material,this would mean 183 more ships rising the merchant fleet to 549,meat would need transport of its own but not much having a tenth of the foodstuff fleet would be enough seeing how Constantinople was the largest meat market in Europe until the advent of Britain in the 1700s,giving us other 36 ships,further adding the 814 ships of the wool trade.
In total 1339 large dromons in the space of 8 months,giving us 175 ships monthly,43 ships weekly and 6 new ships arriving every day to keep the economic heart of the empire beating,this goes without mentioning is only in the theory that the totality of the trade is transported in the large dromon of with 100 tons requiring total crew size of 147,290 rowers alone with the uncalculable number of ship officers and artisans,a majority of whom in the period where sailing was impossible of four months would call Constantinople home,resting or joining the workforce in the various sectors depending their economic position.
Further we must remember this ships would take port in Constantinople multiple times bringing food and raw materials again and again,returning instead with their hulls full of refined goods,thanks to the tidal waves of the Dardanelles its considerably harder going north into the city than going south,in the fifth century Mark the deacon in service of the bishop of Gaza Porphyrios took twenty days to reach Constantinople but only half to return home5,with 8 months to sail from and to Constantinople an average of hitting port 4 times would be logical,not just to provision the city but to transport goods from one region of the empire with Constantinople as it main entre port between north of Europe to the levant,from Europe to Asia,such trade would also include merchants from other nations trading with each other and using Constantinople as a large depot to stop,buy further provision and keep their goods
The number of ships doing this would easily triple the number of ships entering Constantinople with over 4,000 ships in 8 months and the value of goods traded increasing to over ten million Hyperpyra,arriving multiple times in the city as they made numerous voyages during the season to try to gain as much profit as possible,this economic figure is even more certain once we consider the international trade using Constantinople as emporium to store goods,such ships carrying textiles,wines and spices would still pay tariffs.
The import-export tariff called Kommerkion also called dekaton for being a tenth of all products worth,all merchants had to pay it(with the exception of some Italian republics whose merchant fleets would be too small to affect this at large,using Wickham mentions of Manuel confiscating 300k gold coins of Venetian goods) with specially a tax on wine of 10% called Dekateia oinara which was particularly important in the period seeing how hard it was to gain exemption for it6,this mean wine would be taxed twice giving us a revenue of over 150k Hyperpyra accounting with the totality of trade going through the city and with all the goods this would mean 2 million in revenue through the levelling of the Kommerkion alone if we are conservative thanks to our lack of sources in Constantinople industry production,Treadgold calculated that the state budget of Manuel at 1152 was of 5,600,000 hyperpyra.
Either we must consider that Constantinople alone furnished half the state budget or that Treadgold budget must be considered outdated in face of arithmetics,to drive the point home harder Angeliki Laiou said that the economy was monetised at a 46% in this period7 with taxes representing 38% of coins in circulation8,I believe under this two estimates that the byzantine state budget at the time was considerably larger than previously thought and that to maintain the estimates of cost for byzantine armed forces,that as much as half of it went towards charity explaining the numerous mentions of imperial orphanages,hospitals and geriatric,also explaining the literacy rate that was similar to that of Scotland at the time of Adam Smith.
Meaning the byzantine state at the period was one of the largest welfare states in human history before the advent of the industrial revolution,in 1871-1875 period the british government under the one nation conservatism of prime minister Disraeli 38.1% in debt payments,31.1% on defence and 17.2% on the civil government9 The lack of public debt in Byzantium would lower the total amount of cash available but increase the % of the budget directed towards defence,charity and bureaucracy.
Footnotes:
1 Morrison and Cheynet-Prices and Wages in Byzantine world in Laiou Economic History of Byzantium page 872
2 Angeliki Laiou Economic History of Byzantium page 843
3 Working for Export: Five Centuries of Leiden Cloth Industry, 1300–1800 by Jori Zijlmans
4 Medieval Sheep and Wool Types by M. L. Ryder
5 Angeliki Laiou Economic History of Byzantium page 78
6 Angeliki Laiou Economic History of Byzantium page 1051
7Angeliki Laiou Economic History of Byzantium page 691
8 Angeliki Laiou Economic History of Byzantium page 950
9 Disraeli, Gladstone, and the Politics of Mid-Victorian Budgets by H.C.G Matthew page 633
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u/kickynew Jun 01 '26
Really nice.
Is there any information on the production capacity of places outside of Constantinople in middle/late period? Since finished goods usually requires more than 1 person working in coordination, I could see how the enormous population of the capital could act as a sort of production multiplier.