The Silk Road of Morea
The Peloponnesian silk industry, long a staple of the local economy, underwent a massive state-led expansion during the 17th century to fund the Despotate's growing military ambitions. By inviting Venetian master-weavers and Genoese dyers to settle in the capital of Mystras, the Despots have broken the foreign monopoly on luxury textile processing, ensuring that the entire value chain — from mulberry cultivation to finished brocade — remained within Greek borders. This economic protectionism will turn the Morea into a vital 'Silk Hub' that will link the luxury demands of the European Enlightenment with the raw materials of the East. The resulting surge in custom duties and trade tolls will provide the treasury with the gold necessary to maintain a modern bureaucracy and a standing army without overtaxing the peasantry.
Chamber of CommerceAdvancerequires
MoreaCountrypotentialAdvance tree
Modifiers
Cloth Output+10%
Fine Cloth Output+10%