The newly built market for merchants opens its doors to the deals and contracts which are a part of the major market places in the Mediterranean. Miquel Tovia, descendent of a textile artisans family that dates back to the conquest, is already an important merchant, is part of the Municipal Council and aims to ennoble his family by marriage. The city experienced a period of cultural and artistic splendor, fueled in part by his good relations with Italy, now that a Valencian, Roderic de Borja, occupies the papal with the name of Alexander VI.