A tax of 5 ducats per head was set on the export of slaves in 1379, and as the revenue so received under the Doge Tommaso Mocenigo (1414–1423) amounted (so says Lazari) to 50,000 ducats, the startling conclusion is that 10,000 slaves yearly were exported! This it is difficult to accept. The slaves were chiefly employed in domestic service, and the records indicate the women to have been about twice as numerous as the men. The highest price recorded is 87 ducats paid for a Russian girl sold in 1429. All the higher prices are for young women; a significant circumstance. With the existence of this system we may safely connect the extraordinary frequence of mention of illegitimate children in Venetian wills and genealogies. (See _Lazari, Del Traffico degli Schiavi in Venezia_, etc., in _Miscellanea di Storia Italiana_, I. 463 _seqq._) In 1308 the Khan Toktai of Kipchak (see Polo, II. 496), hearing that the Genoese and other Franks were in the habit of carrying off Tartar children to sell, sent a force against Caffa, which was occupied without resistance, the people taking refuge in their ships. The Khan also seized the Genoese property in Sarai. (_Heyd._ II. 27.) [20] “_Stracium et omne capud massariciorum_”; in Scotch phrase “_napery and plenishing_.” A Venetian statute of 1242 prescribes that a bequest of _massariticum_ shall be held to carry to the legatee all articles of common family use except those of gold and silver plate or jeweller’s work. (See _Ducange, sub voce._) _Stracci_ is still used technically in Venice for “household linen.” [21] In the original _aureas libras quinque_. According to Marino Sanudo the Younger (_Vite dei Dogi_ in _Muratori_, xxii. 521) this should be pounds or _lire_ of _aureole_, the name of a silver coin struck by and named after the Doge _Aurio_ Mastropietro (1178–1192): “Ancora fu fatta una Moneta d’argento che si chiamava _Aureola_ per la casata del Doge; _è quella Moneta che i Notai de Venezia mettevano di pena sotto i loro instrumenti_.” But this was a vulgar error. An example of the penalty of 5 pounds of gold is quoted from a decree of 960; and the penalty is sometimes expressed “_auri purissimi librae_ 5.” A coin called the _lira d’oro_ or _redonda_ is alleged to have been in use before the ducat was introduced. (See _Gallicciolli_, II. 16.) But another authority seems to identify the _lira a oro_ with the _lira dei grossi_. (See _Zanetti, Nuova Racc. delle Monete &c. d’Italia_, 1775. I. 308.)