Venice was another great trading center by the 11th century. Into their city came raw materials and slaves from the European Northwest frontier, to be exchanged for Oriental wares and Venice’s own products. Venitians exported young Slavs to the great estates and to harems of Egypt and Syria. A high profit in the slave trade added greatly to the city’s rising prosperity. (Papal threats to excommunicate sellers of Christian slaves were ignored because Venice had the venerated bones of Saint Mark and they knew that the Church would not risk losing them.)
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