Abstract:

The Mediterranean, which has hosted many civilisations and has acted as a melting pot of different cultures over history, had an extremely important strategic role in the Middle Ages as a meeting point for East and West. Over history, there have been many long struggles over who would rule the region, yet these struggles have added to the richness of the area. The geography, which had been the scene of mostly political contentions until the end of the 13th century, became an area for economic competition in the 14th century. The establishment in 1261 of the Menteshe Principality as a result of Menteshe Bey’s taking over the Karia region of Anatolia’s southern coast from the Byzantines had a large role in the commercial life between the Mediterranean and the West. In the period during which the Menteshe Principality emerged and ruled was one of the liveliest periods in the region, both politically and economically. Trade between the East and West was enlivened with the Crusades, and the importance of the Mediterranean ports increased. The Italian maritime states, in particular Venice and Genoa, pushed the Jewish and Greek traders to one side and took over the monopoly on the trade in the region. At the beginning of the 14th century, when the Mamluks evicted the remaining crusaders from Arvad and started to take high customs taxes from European traders, many traders started to turn to Anatolia. Moreover, the Turks started to develop their trade when the Principalities started to supply goods at prices below those which were determined by the Byzantines. The knights of Venice, Genoa and Rhodes knew that their existence on the Aegean islands was dependent on their good relations with the maritime Turkish principalities. Thus, they founded strong relations with the Menteshe Principalitiy. As a result, the Menteshe Principality became an important trading centre for cereals, horses and other supplies. The purpose of this paper is to make an evaluation of the Menteshe Principality’s economic structure, with specific reference to the export of horses. To this aim, the economic importance of the Menteshe region, the economic relations formed between East and West, and finally the issue of horse trade within this framework will be discussed.

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