So far this study has focused on the political life of the three ex-Byzantine duchies of the Tyrrhenian, but in the narrative it has become apparent that landed wealth and commercial exchange may have been crucial to individual and family power. This and the following chapter explore the economic life of the area in a little more detail. Firstly, the local and landed bases of wealth will be examined, and then the picture will be widened outside the immediate area of the Campanian and Latin coast to investigate the evidence for the effects of long-distance trade connections on the political life of the duchies.

GAETA

The natural features of the territory of Gaeta clearly dictated the economic life of the duchy and shaped its political history. At its widest extent, the duchy of Gaeta spread from Terracina to the Garigliano river, and inland as far as Valledecursa (Vallecorsa) and Fratte (Ausonia).

At their highest the mountains rise to some 1500m. At its lowest the plain is several metres below sea-level. In some places one gives way to the other so suddenly that the sheer scarps formed have still not been tamed for agricultural use. Nor has it been necessary to do so, for since the nineteenth century a programme of drainage has opened up large areas of the flat land to the type of intensive cultivation seen also in the English fenlands.