Consulate of the Sea

The Consulate of the Sea (Consolat de mar) was a quasi-judicial body set up in the Crown of Aragon, later to spread throughout the Mediterranean basin, to administer maritime and commercial law. The term may also refer to a celebrated collection of maritime customs and ordinances in Catalan, also known in English as The Customs of the Sea, compiled over the fourteenth and 15th centuries and published at Barcelona in or before 1494.