THE TRADE OF RAGUSA
wax, timber, silver, and iron. Ragusa imported salt, manufactured cloths, clothes, brocades, arms, axes, horse-trappings, glass-ware, perfumes, sweetmeats, southern fruits, fish, oil, wine, and gold- and silversmiths’ wares.1 The salt trade formed one of the Republic’s chief sources of income, as the interior, although rich in other minerals, was absolutely wanting in this necessary commodity. Salt-pans were established at four points along the Illyrian coast—the Narenta, Ragusa, the Bocche di Cattaro, and San Sergio on the Bojana. The Ragusans, by means of old treaties with the Slaves, had almost acquired a monopoly of the traffic, and they were often able to punish the depredations to which their territory was subjected by cutting off the supply. The largest salt-pans were in the neighbourhood of Ragusa itself, but after 1333 they were removed to Stagno, where the industry is carried on to this day, and continues to supply the saltless interior.2 The Narenta salt-pans were monopolised by the Ragusans, who established a customs station at the river’s mouth, and those of the Bojana, although outside their territory, were also in their hands; their only rival was Cattaro, whence the innumerable quarrels with that city. Cloth was imported from Venice, Florence, Mantua, and later from the looms of Ragusa herself. The presents which the Ragusans gave to the Slave princes and nobles out of friendship or as blackmail and bribery often took the form of rich gold brocades, silks, and satins, which greatly delighted the
 1	Mjatovic, Studies in the History of Servian Trade in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, Glasnik, vol. 33, 37, 38 ; Jirecek, op. cit.
  2	Jirecek, op. cit.