INTERNAL CONDITIONS 265
consul whom they elected; if a Greek claimed a debt of a Ragusan he was to appeal to the latter’s consul, while in the inverse case the Ragusan would appeal to the local authorities; Ragusan merchants might import and export goods free of duty save for a 2J per cent, tax on the sale of imports; there was to be no limit to the number of Ragusans residing at Constantinople; if a Ragusan left the city owing money to natives, none of his compatriots might be arrested in his place. The same year two Silver Bulls of a similar character were issued to the Ragusans by Thomas Palaeologus, Despot of Achaia, at Misithia, and by his brother Demetrius, Despot of the Peloponnesus, at Chiarenza. The treaties were negotiated by Volzo Bobali, who in 1451 made a journey through the remnants of the Greek Empire to improve commercial relations with his own city ; but they were merely the renewal of old-established connections, for since the fourteenth century Ragusan traders had brought the famed silks of Chiarenza to Ancona1 and Italy. In the treaty with Ancona of 1372 allusion is made to the Ragusan trade in spices, sugar, and silks from Tartary and “ Gazaria,” which shows the wide extent of the city’s sea-borne trade.
   At the same time, as we have seen, the Republic’s relations with the Turks and the Egyptians were by no means unfriendly, and every opportunity was seized to ensure a good understanding with the Court of Brusa and afterwards of Adrianople. The Turkish trade was
  1	Tafel und Thomas, Kais. Wiener Akad. der Wissensch.; Heyd, Histoire du Commerce du Levant, ii. 292 sqq. ; Makushev, Mon. Hist. Slav. Mer., p. in.