Bizans Rumları: Revizyonlar arasındaki fark

 

Although female life expectancy in Byzantium was lower than that of men, due to death in childbirth, wars and the fact that men married younger, female widowhood was still fairly common.<ref name="Cavallo128"/> Still, some women were able to circumvent societal strictures and work as traders, artisans, abbots, entertainers, and scholars.<ref>{{harvnb|Rautman|2006|p=26}}.</ref>

The traditional image of Byzantine Greek merchants as unenterprising benefactors of state aid is beginning to change for that of mobile, pro-active agents.<ref name="Laiou-Morrison139">{{harvnb|Laiou|Morrison|2007|p=139}}.</ref> The merchant class, particularly that of [[Constantinople]], became a force of its own that could, at times, even threaten the Emperor as it did in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.<ref name="Laiou-Morrison140">{{harvnb|Laiou|Morrison|2007|p=140}}.</ref> This was achieved through efficient use of credit and other monetary innovations. Merchants invested surplus funds in financial products called ''chreokoinonia'' ({{lang|grc|χρεοκοινωνία}}), the equivalent and perhaps ancestor of the later Italian ''commenda''.<ref name="Laiou-Morrison140"/>