The slave trade on the Adriatic in the 17th century / Prodaja roblja na Jadranu u 17. stoljeću

Since Antiquity the slave trade in the Adriatic had been a long term activity which had an important impact on the economy of the Dalmatian communes. The status of slaves and their traffic was originally regulated by the Statutes of individual Dalmatian towns. With the appearance of Ottomans in late Middle Ages into their hinterland numerous changes occurred. The traffic in slaves was redirected towards the east where the Christian captives were then sold. Nevertheless, with the new intensity of Christian warfare against the Ottomans, the Muslim slave trade from the Ottoman Empire increased particularly in Dalmatian marketplaces which were mediatory because the real trade of Ottoman subjects was across the Adriatic on the Apennine Peninsula. This traffic reached a special intensity during the Candian and Morean Wars in the second half of the 17th century. The trade of the Ottoman captives in the Adriatic, how they were kept and sold, including the legal regulations of the trade from the Venetian and Papal points of view in the 17th century, are discussed in this paper.