of that emperor in order to obtain similar privileges. In 1154 Manuel granted them a golden bull, which set out the concessions that had been granted to them. The Genoese were to pay an export and import duty of four per cent, instead of ten, which was the rate paid by other traders, except, of course, the favored Venetians.[1] They were to have a khan assigned them in the City of Constantinople and a quarter on the opposite shore, where afterwards arose their important city of Galata. In 1157, however, they complained that the khan and the wharf had not been given them.[2] During the next four or five years the friendly relations between the empire and the Genoese and Pisans alike were several times disturbed. The Genoese had allied themselves with Frederic Barbarossa, while the Venetians and the Pisans supported Manuel.
Partial failure of Manuel's policy.
Henceforward the history of the Latin colonists in Constantinople is the story of a series of quarrels and rivalries among themselves and of combined hostility towards the empire. The emperor's wish was probably to keep at peace with all the Latin colonies. Nicetas tells us that he sought to bind them to him in friendship. He aided Pope Alexander the Third and the Italian cities against Frederic Barbarossa. He invited Italian settlers, and promised to protect their commerce. But the citizens of the rival Italian states could not keep from quarrelling together in Constantinople, and hence Manuel's policy met with imperfect success.
In 1169 we find Manuel making a new alliance with the Genoese. They obtained another treaty with Manuel in 1178, which gave them liberty to trade with all parts of the empire except Russia.[3]
On the death of Manuel, in 1180, Genoa, Venice, and Pisa were all at peace with the empire. Manuel's policy had been so far successful that, according to the statement of
