In 1719, the French built a storehouse in Metsovo and filled it with products made by the Vlach population that they planned to export.
The Zygos pass, on the most important transportation networks connecting Epirus and Thessaly.(Colour lithography – Louis Dupré, 1825)
The French explorer Pouqueville reported that since the era of Louis XIV (17th century) the Vlachs had supplied wool and leather to the French. From the 18th century onwards, there was a rise in exports and traders from Metsovo established trading houses in Venice, Naples, Trieste, Marseilles, Vienna, Moscow, Odessa, Constantinople, Thessaloniki, Serres and Alexandria. Metsovo became a centre of trade even more important than Ioannina.
