Trade of the "slave rivers" leased to Florentine merchant Bartolomeo Marchione

In 1486 the trade of the "slave rivers" of the Niger Delta was leased to a Florentine merchant named Bartolomeo Marchione who paid 1,100 milreis per annum for the lease. Since Marchione retained the lease until 1495, it must be presumed that the Benin trade which opened in 1487 under direct royal control was not held to conflict with the Italian's contract. Marchione lived in Lisbon and also furnished letters of credit for Pero de Covilham and Afonso de Paiva when they set out on their Ethiopian mission in 1487.