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Amalfi is
a town and commune in the province of Salerno, in the region of
Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno, 24 miles southeast of
Naples.
Amalfi is first mentioned in the 6th century, and soon acquired
importance as a maritime power, trading its grain, salt and slaves
from the interior, and even timber, for the gold dinars minted in
Egypt and Syria, in order to buy the silks of the Byzantine empire
that it resold in the West. Merchants of Amalfi were using gold
coins to purchase land in the 9th century, while most of Italy
worked in a barter economy. In the 8th and 9th century, when
Mediterranean trade revived it shared with Gaeta the Italian trade
with the East, while Venice was in its infancy, and in 848 its fleet
went to the assistance of Pope Leo IV against the Saracens. An
independent republic from the seventh century until 1075, it
rivalled Pisa and Genoa in its domestic prosperity and maritime
importance.
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