Final answer:
In Constantinople, a variety of goods such as silk textiles, spices, and precious stones were traded, highlighting the city's central role in the Silk Roads. Fashions influenced by intercultural connections and luxury goods from the East were prominent, with the city's wealth.
Step-by-step explanation:
The shops in Constantinople were bustling with a variety of worldly goods that represented the city's position as a central hub of trade along the Silk Roads.
Silk textiles, highly coveted by the Early Byzantine elite, were among the most desired of these commodities.
Other luxury items traded included spices, precious stones, exquisite ceramics, glass vessels, and fine jewelry.
Through the Book of the Eparch, a code for the regulation of guilds, we can pinpoint specific trade guilds that dealt with goods from the East, such as silk and spices.
Artistic influences from around the world also shaped Byzantine fashion, introducing items such as Islamic turbans and caftans into their markets.
Aside from luxury goods, Constantinople conducted significant trade with both western Europe and Arab states, exporting high-quality finished goods and importing raw materials like ore and foodstuffs.
The economy of Constantinople, regulated through a system of guilds, thrived on a mix of intercultural trade, resulting in the city gaining a reputation as the largest, richest, and most glorious city across Europe and the Mediterranean at the time.