Trgovina robljem dugotrajna je aktivnost koja je imala značajnog udjela u gospodarstvu dalmatinskih komuna još iz antičkog doba. Status robova i njihov promet regulirani su statutima dalmatinskih gradova. Promjene nastaju s pojavom Osmanlija u njihovom zaleđu u kasnom srednjem vijeku. Trgovina, tj. promet robova preusmjerava se prema istoku gdje se prodaju kršćanski zarobljenici. Međutim, s intenzitetom kršćanskog ratovanja protiv Osmanlija povećava se i trgovina muslimanskim robljem (robovi s teritorija Osmanskog carstva) u dalmatinskim trgovištima koja su posrednička jer se prava trgovina osmanskim podanicima odvija na Apeninskom poluotoku. Ovaj je promet robovima naročito intenziviran za vrijeme Kandijskog i Morejskog rata u drugoj polovici 17. stoljeća. U ovom članku razmatra se trgovina zarobljenim osmanskim podanicima na Jadranu, načini na koje su zarobljenici bili držani i prodavani te zakonske regulacije s gledišta Mletačke republike i Papinske države u 17. stoljeću.Since Antiquity the slave trade in the Adriatic had been a long term activity which had an important impact on the economy of the Dalmatian communes. The status of slaves and their traffic was originally regulated by the Statutes of individual Dalmatian towns. With the appearance of Ottomans in late Middle Ages into their hinterland
numerous changes occurred. The traffic in slaves was redirected towards the east where the Christian captives were then sold. Nevertheless, with the new intensity of Christian warfare against the Ottomans, the Muslim slave trade from the Ottoman Empire increased particularly in Dalmatian marketplaces which were mediatory because the real trade of Ottoman subjects was across the Adriatic on the Apennine Peninsula. This traffic reached a special intensity during the Candian and Morean Wars in the second half of the 17th century. The trade of the Ottoman captives in the Adriatic, how they were kept and sold, including the legal regulations of the trade from the Venetian and Papal points of view in the 17th century, are discussed in this paper