The Latin merchants, looking as though they had lost their parents, along with their attendants and servants, were driven outside the palace gates by the Varangian Guard, their fasces raised high.
They staggered along, their faces deathly pale. The tyrant's cold voice seemed to still echo in their ears—from this day forth, all such privileges as "concessions," "extraterritorial jurisdiction," "tariff rights," and "tax exemptions" granted to the Latin city-states in Jerusalem were abolished.
"We're his own people! Does he really consider those heathens not yet under his rule to be his subjects?"
The Venetian representative stared back blankly at the towering palace, utterly at a loss.
He found it hard to understand. In his eyes, Latin merchants like them were effectively the spokesmen of the Crusader nobility. Compared with continuing to employ powerful heathens as tax farmers, were they not far more trustworthy?
"Our annual tributes to the Jerusalem royal family, harbor leasing fees, and storage fees nearly amount to half the kingdom's total revenue. What exactly is he dissatisfied with?"
The Genoese representative beside him sneered. "His Majesty the Emperor bears a deep grudge against us. This is all your Venetians' doing."
"If you hadn't coerced and deceived the Crusaders, bringing about the scandal of the siege of Constantinople, why would His Majesty Lothar be so wary of us?"
The Genoese were primarily based in Tyr. Though their economic ties to the Kingdom of Jerusalem ran deep, they were far inferior to those of the Venetians. Their commercial focus was not the Levant, but the Eastern Empire and the Black Sea.
The "Latin Massacre" in Constantinople had driven relations between Venice and the Eastern Empire to rock bottom. The Genoese seized the opportunity to rise, replacing the Venetians' position.
It was only after that that the Venetians began shifting