In the latter half of the 15th century Sofia, owing to its situation at the junction of several trade routes, became an important centre of Ragusan commerce.
The treaties of Carlowitz (1699) and Passarowitz (1718) deprived the Turks of all the Primorje, or littoral of Herzegovina, except the narrow enclaves of Klek and Suttorina, left to sunder the Ragusan dominions from those of Venice.
Ragusan policy was usually peaceful, and disputes with other nations were frequently arranged by a system of arbitration called stanicum.
A compact with the Turks, made in 1370 and renewed in the next century, saved Ragusa from the fate of its more powerful neighbours, Servia and Byzantium, besides enabling the Ragusan caravans to penetrate into Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia, Servia, Bulgaria and Rumania.
Meanwhile, Ragusan vessels were known not only in Italy, Sicily, Spain, Greece, the Levant and Egypt, but in the more northern parts of Europe.