Capital, People and Ships in Mediterranean Transport: Valencia in the Late 15th Century (original) (raw)
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Ships in Medieval Valencia: Between Local Construction and the Acquisition of Foreign Resources
The development of Valencia from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century allowed the city to occupy a remarkable position in the maritime routes that passed through the eastern Iberian coast. This was due to the use made of the port of Valencia by ships from different origins: from the rest of the Crown of Aragon (mainly Catalans and Majorcans), from northern Italy, from Castile or from Valencia itself. In the case of larger vessels, local participacion was minor, although not non-existent. Valencian agents obtained these ships through the labour in the urban shipyards, frequently promoted by the municipality, but also thanks to the acquisition of foreign ships. The aim of the paper is to analyze this double way of naval resources and its economic impact especially during the fifteenth century, when Valencia has more abundant and diversified sources to study the subject.
The Iberian Peninsula enjoyed a strategic geographic position on the long-distance routes between the Mediterranean and Atlantic Europe from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries, and on the expansion routes over the Atlantic Ocean. However, until the thirteenth century, the development of these maritime routes remained very modest, basically driven by maritime pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela and the fleets of Crusaders from northern Europe who circumnavigated the Peninsula on their way to the new Christian kingdoms of the Mediterranean Levant between 1096 and 1270. From the thirteenth century onward, a shift unfolded from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic owing to political, economic and technological factors, thence granting the Atlantic façade a strategic position of the highest order within medieval commercial exchanges. The economy of the area evolved around three large hubs of growth: the Northern Cantabrian area, Lisbon to the West and Seville to the South. Urban historiography has granted priority to the study of these large ports over the smaller ones. However, investigations on maritime commerce, navigation, and port societies have proven the valuable role played by small and medium-sized ports within the “network” and have led to a correction of the myopic approach of macroeconomic studies. The foundation by royal decree of some fifty port towns between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries lay the structural foundations for the development of maritime routes along the Cantabrian coastline. In this sense, Cantabrian ports constitute a subset of the urban system of the Crown of Castile and its relations with the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, based on diverse factors such as geographic conditions, the political administrative dynamics, infrastructures, and economic and particularly commercial relationships, all of which was the object of this paper.
Between the Mediterranean and the North Sea: Networks of Men and Ports (14th-15th Centuries)
Atti delle «Settimane di Studi» e altri Convegni
This essay examines how the various processes of economic integration brought about by commercial exchanges were influenced by networks of merchants, by the different functions and capacities of ports, and by the various locations of routes established between the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the North Sea. The ports, the routes and ships, and the mentality and culture of the economic operators represent the three main themes of this study; it aims to observe and compare maritime environments which were completely different from one another, especially in terms of the size of the ports and the importance of the commercial itineraries based on them.
Great and Small Trade in the Crown of Aragon. The Example of Valencia in the Late Middle Ages
2009
The arlicle analyses the historiographic debate about the relations between great and small trade during the later Middle Ages. It does so emphasising the social and economic roie of the small trade, and the eiements of integration and coordination between botb categories of rnarket. With this aim, the text takes the Crown of Aragon as its reference framework, especially the city and kingdom of Valencia, between the 13th and 15th centuries. Two types of maritime exchanges around the territory of Valencia are studied: one being short distance cabotage, between the ports in the kingdotn arid the capital; and the long-distance internatiorial trade that liuked Valencia with such countries as Italy or Portugal.
2020
This paper examines the jurisdictional strategies that merchants involved in Valencian maritime trade during the late sixteenth-century used to manage disputes arising from maritime conflicts. It is well known that Medieval and Early Modern merchants resorted to different institutional mechanisms for conflict management, but in the Valencian case we know nothing about how merchants selected and used the available institutions, how those institutions worked in practice and what their efficiency in handling conflicts was. In the following lines I am going to shed some light to these questions through the analysis of specific institutions accessible in the Kingdom of Valencia that according to the archival sources were commonly employed by merchants in conflict management, such as the foreign consul, the Consulate of the Sea, the Royal Audience of Valencia and the practice of arbitration.
This collective volume explores the ways merchants managed to connect different spaces all over the globe in the early modern period by organizing the movement of goods, capital, information and cultural objects between different commercial maritime systems in the Mediterranean and Atlantic basin. Merchants and Trade Networks in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, 1550-1800 consists of four thematic blocs: theoretical considerations, the social composition of networks, connected spaces, networks between formal and informal exchange, as well as possible failures of ties. This edited volume features eleven contributions who deal with theoretical concepts such as social network analysis, globalization, social capital and trust. In addition, several chapters analyze the coexistence of mono-cultural and transnational networks, deal with network failure and shifting network geographies, and assess the impact of kinship for building up international networks between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. This work evaluates the use of specific network types for building up connections across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Basin stretching out to Central Europe, the Northern Sea and the Pacific. This book is of interest to those who study history of economics and maritime economics, as well as historians and scholars from other disciplines working on maritime shipping, port studies, migration, foreign mercantile communities, trade policies and mercantilism.
General Average and Risk Management in Medieval and Early Modern Maritime Business, 2023
This essay will discuss the preliminary results emerging from data extrapolated from General Average (GA) procedures in Genoa, between the last decade of the sixteenth century and the 1640s. The wealth of data provided by GA procedures compensates for some of the gaps in quantitative data which have held back research on the local maritime economy. Methodologically, this essay further develops the insights of Giuseppe Felloni’s work on GA’s potential for economic analysis.1 The rich docu-mentation produced during GA procedures, from the original report (testimoniale) to the final apportioning of costs (calculus), provides details for typology of vessel, provenance, route, flag and cargo. This data sheds new light on Mediterranean maritime trade during a fundamental period of structural change, characterized by the emergence of new protagonists and the creation of new equilibria.
The Routledge Handbook of Maritime Trade around Europe 1300-1600 explores the links between maritime trading networks around Europe, from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic to the North and Baltic Seas. Maritime trade routes connected diverse geographical and cultural spheres, contributing to a more integrated Europe in both cultural and material terms. This volume explores networks’ economic functions alongside their intercultural exchanges, contacts and practical arrangements in ports on the European coasts. The collection takes as its central question how shippers and merchants were able to connect regional and interregional trade circuits around and beyond Europe in the late medieval period. It is divided into four parts, with chapters in Part I looking across broad themes such as ships and sailing routes, maritime law, financial linkages and linguistic exchanges. In the following parts - divided into the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea, and the Atlantic and North Seas - contributors present case studies addressing themes including conflict resolution, relations between different types of main ports and their hinterland, the local institutional arrangements supporting maritime trade, and the advantages and challenges of locations around the continent. The volume concludes with a summary that points to the extraterritorial character of trading systems during this fascinating period of expansion. Drawing together an international team of contributors, The Routledge Handbook of Maritime Trade around Europe is a vital contribution to the study of maritime history and the history of trade. It is essential reading for students and scholars in these fields
Portuguese hide exports to Valencia in the context of the West Mediterranean trade, 1465-1500
Essays on production and trade in late medieval Iberia and the Mediterranean, 2023
From the tenth century on, technical and technological advancements in agriculture resulted in an unprecedented growth of cultivated land in Europe, which would contribute to a progressive integration of markets. This economic drive occurred during a time of profound political, social, and religious change. In certain parts of Europe, citystates emerged to become the standard form of polity, breaking away from previous ruling models and thrusting a new era of urban life and economic development. This period was also marked by the zenith of Islam throughout the Middle East, the Maghreb, and the Iberian Peninsula, with its people revolutionising agricultural production. Through specific case studies, this book aims to understand how these pieces of the medieval economy worked and evolved, how distinctive they were from one region to another, and what consequences local, regional, and international trade have had in people's everyday lives. Esta investigação fornece uma análise aprofundada do comércio de couros português no porto de Valência de 1465 a 1500, baseado nos registos documentais do Dret portugués. Ao fornecer números exatos ao comércio, e identificando os agentes comerciais envolvidos, elucida acerca das estratégias comerciais empregues no comércio de couros nesse porto, e procura estabelecer comparações com outros fluxos comerciais de couros para outras partes do Mediterrâneo Ocidental na segunda metade do século XV. A abordagem ao papel desempenhado pelos agentes portugueses no comércio internacional de couros permite contribuir para um conhecimento mais profundo da presença portuguesa no Mediterrâneo na era da expansão oceânica.
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