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At what point is trade in the Med. sufficient enough for a thalassocracy to develop? Is it just a matter of any trading city getting its act together enough to attain sufficient mass and then expand outwards? For example, Venice clearing the Adriatic of pirates. Or, does the general economy need to develop enough to make such efforts profitable first? Such as the growing European economy in the 10th and 11th centuries, with increased agricultural production and technological expansion. Of course, this is a chicken v egg situation, with both sides feeding into each other.
Its taken as self-evident that Constantinople was ideally situated along trade routes. And yet, it was the Italian cities that served as the transition from naval to land trade (and vice versa) that came to dominate the maritime economy of the mediterranean. Could Constantinople have done the same? What specific challenges would it face?