Florini şi dinari în registrele vamale ale Sibiului din secolul al XVI-lea. Scurt demers metodologic.
Money of Account in the Customs Register of Sibiu in the Sixteenth Century

Summary/Abstract: The present study deals with the trade of spices on the basis of the extant customs registers of the two most important Saxon towns of Transylvania in the Middle Ages and the Early modern period, Braşov and Sibiu. These towns were important trading centres, acting as intermediaries in the long-distance trade between Western and Central Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Spices were a major element in the transit trade of oriental goods. Data is available from the beginning and from the fifth decade of the sixteenth century. The first part of the article presents the potential and the limitations of the customs registers as primary sources for reconstructing commercial traffic. The main part of the study consists of tables that illustrate in a comparative approach the amounts of different spices that reached Transylvania through the customs of Braşov and Sibiu. Apart from pepper, the quantities of spices brought to the Saxon towns are not impressive. The trade in spices declined sharply throughout the first half of the century and never recovered the weighty traffic registered at the beginning of the sixteenth century.

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