The Book of the Prefect or Eparch is a Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 commercial manual or guide addressed to the eparch of Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

 (the governor of the city with supreme judicial jurisdiction and the highest economic official, who had charge of, for example, tariffs and import/export regulation). Based on established customs and laws and now littered with later interpolations, the Book is an essential document in the economic history

Economic history

Economic history is the study of economies or economic phenomena in the past. Analysis in economic history is undertaken using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and by applying economic theory to historical situations and institutions...

 of Byzantium and the Mediterranean. The book was lost until 1891, when it was discovered in Geneva by the Swiss Jules Nicole, who named it the Livre de l'Éparque.

Dating

The book is traditionally dated to the reign of Leo VI the Wise

Leo VI the Wise

Leo VI, surnamed the Wise or the Philosopher , was Byzantine emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty , he was very well-read, leading to his surname...

 (886–912). However, whilst the first chapter concerning the entrance requirements to the college of notaries does probably date from Leo's reign (Leo was renowned for recodifying and tidying up Roman law

Roman law

Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...

), it seems that the work itself (like so many texts from this period) was the product of gradual accumulation. References in four places to tetartera coins show the work in its final form to be no earlier than the reign of Nikephoros II Phokas (963–69), who instigated this particular form of lightweight gold coinage. The absence of any mention of Rus’

Kievan Rus'

Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....

 merchants from the document, whilst other nationalities such as Bulgars and Syrians are mentioned, also indicates a late date—presumably after the breakdown of Byzantine–Rus' relations in 968.

Contents

The Book of the Prefect is essentially a list of regulations concerning the collegia or private guilds that had existed in the Greek world since Roman times. As all trades were theoretically under governmental control, the Book of the Prefect is not exhaustive of all crafts. Instead, the book appears to highlight a cross-section of the areas where public interest and private went together, showing how a good city should be run to keep its black market under wraps.

The text is divided into twenty-two chapters, the first nineteen of which refer to specific guilds:

• Chapter 1 – the college of notaries (contract lawyers). This is the longest chapter in the work and, as it can probably be associated with the reign of Leo VI, predates the other chapters. The chapter sets strict regulations for entry into the college of notaries (for example stipulating that an candidate must have perfect knowledge of the law and know, amongst other things, the 40 titles of Manuel by heart.

The remaining chapters are much smaller than the first chapter and discuss eighteen other guilds, often with similar clauses indicating imposition of the regulations from above:

• Chapter 2 – dealers in bullion
• Chapter 3 – bankers
• Chapter 4 – silk stuff merchants
• Chapter 5 – merchants who import silk from Syria and Baghdad
• Chapter 6 – raw silk merchants
• Chapter 7 – raw silk dressers
• Chapter 8 – silk dyers
• Chapter 9 – linen merchants
• Chapter 10 – perfume merchants
• Chapter 11 – wax and taper merchants
• Chapter 12 – soap merchants
• Chapter 13 – grocers
• Chapter 14 – saddlers
• Chapter 15 – butchers
• Chapter 16 – pork merchants
• Chapter 17 – fishmongers
• Chapter 18 – bakers
• Chapter 19 – inn-holders

Some similar points from these clauses include regulations controlling the elections to guilds and their entrance fees, clauses advocating working together including rhetoric on not cheating others and having good quality produce, the setting of prices and profit margins, and the setting of the spheres of work and areas of the city in which they can operate to avoid competition between guilds.

The last three chapters concern the regulation of agents and contractors, as well as the administration of the Eparch's office and his use of deputies in customs inspections.

Aims and effects

It is not know exactly why the Book of the Prefect was compiled, however use of the guilds may have been a way for the Eparch to police the market, seeking order, a decrease in crime, and the guarantee of cheap supplies. The demarcation of guilds and control they got over their members shows there was a marrying of interests between the guilds and the state. However, it is important to stress that not all members of each profession were a member of their guild. Instead it evidence from the text suggests that guilds were exclusive and privileged, and intended for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. At one point the text mentions raw silk dressers who were not a member of their guild and had to buy silk at a higher price.

Another important reason for such imperial concern over commerce was for the efficient raising of a maximum of revenue through taxation.

Enforcement

Many of the Book of the Prefect’s regulations must have been very hard to police (e.g. regulations stipulating that the merchants produce items of good quality), and it is likely that the laws were probably rarely enforced, and where they were it would depend more on co-operation from the guilds rather than on any action by the Eparch

Historiographic utility

The Book of the Prefect has an important place in medieval economic historiography, and is a unique source for the Byzantine economy in the Age of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Some of its many uses include its ability to help us recreate a commercial map of Constantinople, the light it throws on the Constantinopolitan economy and governmental controls over it, and questions concerning the regulation of trade between the Byzantine capital and its provinces.

Translations and editions

The Book has been translated into English twice. Earlier, in 1893, a trilingual edition—in the original Greek, Latin, and French—was made by Jules Nicole, who discovered the only surviving manuscript in a Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

n library. New English translations of sections vi.31–33 and xx.56–57 have since been made by Lopez and Raymond (1951) using Nicole's Greek, but the translators call for completely updated English editions using the most recent Byzantine scholarship. In 1970 Variorum Reprints gathered Nicole's editions and Freshfield's English translation along with a photographic reproduction of the mansucript (Genevensis 23) appended to a new introduction by I. Dujčev. This collection was typically used by scholars until a translation was made into German with a new critical edition of the Greek.