The cities, due to the extremely unfavourable and hard economic conditions, were increasingly unable to support themselves, let alone undertake the administration of state revenue, as they had done in the Early Byzantine period. This loss of rural economic
independence led to the replacement of the city councils with officials who, in essence, were members of a giant state bureaucracy. This fact consequently led to the direct state control regarding taxation of the citizens in all sectors of economy in a centralized manner. Proof of this can be seen with the sudden appearance in the 7th and 8th centuries of small seals of lead (molybdobulls), which were used by the kommerkiarioi. They were state officials responsible for the supply and distribution of artisan goods, the regulation of trade and the collection of indirect taxes within the Byzantine state. These activities took place in the state i>apothekai (warehouses) found in every province. The seals were used by them firstly, to seal merchandise that had been weighed and costed, to prevent re-opening, and secondly, to guarantee, via the signature they bore as a label, the authenticity of the products along with imperial inspection. By means of this state intervention, the economic role of the cities was downgraded even further and the urban economy had undoubtedly lost the important position it had held during the 5th and 6th centuries.
After the 8th century, but mainly in the 9th century, when the growth of rural economy brought about greater prosperity, the urban economy showed even better progress, both in the sectors of manufacture and commerce. The seals of these state officials that controlled manufacture and commerce dissappeared during the end of the 8th and 9th centuries, a fact which shows that this state inspection was no longer necessary for the regulation of the urban economic activities, which had yet to regain their place within the general recovery of economy.
As far as trade is concerned, the 7th and 8th centuries were characterized by the absence of extensive commercial activities along with the demand for elementary and simple ways of economic subsistence, such as the agricultural exploitation of land. This was caused by the economic and demographic crises coupled with the fact that foreign invasions and the destruction that entailed rendered the national road network hard to use and the communications between the several regions became unsafe. In this way the Byzantines were detered from undertaking the transportation of cheap products that would not yield big profits. From the 9th century, the rural economy started to recover, small industries began to grow rapidly and the Byzantine imports and exports started to thrive. Manufacture activity, although reduced, continued to exist within the Byzantian empire in this period, without experiencing major expansion during the following centuries. The artisan workshops that emerged towards the end of this period were concentrated mainly in Constantinople and in the few cities that had survived. The requirements of the imperial court and the army for goods such as linen and silk textiles, leather goods, waxes, perfumes, soap, and objects made of precious metals or enamel were produced by artisan guilds that were supervised by the State. The metallic tools and the objects made of lead, copper or iron were most likely produced outside the guild system.