The whole basis of Ragusa’s prosperity, as we have seen in the first chapter, was trade. The Republic’s territory was too small, and in part too arid, to provide sufficient foodstuffs for the population and three-quarters of the grain which it consumed annually were imported from abroad. Consequently it was upon trade and industry that the citizens had to depend for their means of livelihood. Manufactures, however, save shipbuilding, never assumed great importance at Ragusa, and it was not until the following century that any industries at all were established. Trade, on the other hand, both sea-borne and overland, received a great additional impetus from the extension of Venetian traffic and from the increasing civilisation of the Slave states. At Ragusa, as at Venice, Florence, Siena, and elsewhere in Italy, the aristocracy as well as the middle classes were all interested in trade. We find members of all the noble families in the Ragusan settlements in Servia and Bosnia and Albania, and no nobleman disdained to travel overseas with his own goods. We have seen the division of Ragusan maritime trade into coastwise traffic, navigation _intra Culfum_, and navigation _extra Culfum_. This last now became of considerable importance, and Ragusan vessels were found in every port of the Eastern Mediterranean. A special form of trade which had now arisen is that described in the Statute-book as _ultra marinis partibus_, _i.e._ up the courses of navigable rivers like the Narenta and the Bojana. The Levant trade became extremely active, and was no longer limited to the tract of sea between the Capo Cumano on one side, and Apulia and Durazzo on the other. From the commercial provisions contained in the various treaties between Ragusa and Venice, we learn that the former traded with all parts of the Eastern Empire. Syria, Tunis, Barbary, Italy, Sicily, and probably Egypt. At Constantinople the privilege granted by the Comneni were renewed by the Latin Emperors Baldwin I. and Henry. The Ragusans traded especially with the Morea and the feudal duchy of Chiarenza or Clarence,[196] whence they brought silk to Ancona and other parts of Italy. At the same time they kept up their connection with the Greek princes who held sway over the fragments of the Greek Empire, namely, the Emperors of Nicæa and Trebizond[197] and the despots of Epirus. After the capture of Constantinople by the Latins, Epirus continued to hold out against their arms, and was ruled by the despots Michael I. (who died in 1214), Manuel (1214-1241), and Michael II. (1241-1271), all of whom granted valuable privileges to the Ragusans.[198] When the Greek Empire was re-established in 1261 all the exemptions and privileges were reconfirmed, first by Michael Palæologus, and later, in 1322, by Andronicus II.[199]