 Pietro complied, but this undermined Venice's economic interests as trade with the Arab coast of North Africa, which was short of wood, was an important part of Venetian trade.Wood for furnishing was excluded from the ban, but this was of little relief.The ban was not instituted by a decree of the doge, but by an oath ("carta promissiones") by the popular assembly to abstain from the banned acts with a penal clause regarding breaches chosen freely by the assembly.