At present all foreign merchants, without exception, live outside the walls of Constantinople. The aim of the Latin colonists in the twelfth century was to obtain quarters inside the city. These quarters, as they arc usually called by the Western writers, consisted of what are known in the East as khans, and what were called tjuf3oXot by the Greeks. All the Latin quarters, with the exception of two small settlements which were destined to grow into the city of Galata, were, as we have seen, inside the city walls, though it is known that inferior houses were built between the walls and the waters of the Golden Horn. All the Latin quarters were on the side of the city which slopes towards this great harbor. The great straggle between the rival colonies, and indeed with the Byzantines, was for the scales or wharves. Across the harbor, on the slopes of Pera, and in what is now called Galata, were the settlements of Jews who had been banished from the city, and probably the dwellings of a few Venetians and Genoese.

Monopolies were discountenanced

The political economy of a succession of emperors had encouraged trade. They rarely sought to place restriction upon commerce. Monopolies were discountenanced. Merchants were invited to trade, and their rights were strictly guarded. The imperial government left traders very much to themselves, and did not harass them by useless restrictions or by those attempts to protect the public which have so often prevented trade.

The taking of interest was allowed, and hence a great deal of the capital which had belonged to the Mahometans on their eastern frontier, by whom the taking of interest was strictly forbidden, flowed into the empire. Luxury was permitted. Few attempts were made to fix the prices of the merchandise sold. Duties on goods imported and exported were light in comparison with what they have been in other countries. Even as early as the time of Theophilus it had been formally declared that, as commerce was a benefit to the public, any interference with it was an offence against the public as well as against the person injured.

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