The construction of free ports: political communication, commercial development and administrative control, 2019
When scholars deal with Free Ports’ spreading in Europe in Early Modern Age, they often analyse i... more When scholars deal with Free Ports’ spreading in Europe in Early Modern Age, they often analyse its first phase. According with recent researches and publications, the birth of the Free Port institution is an Early Modern phenomenon occurred at the beginning of the XVII century. In my thesis, I claimed a parallel development between the Genoese and Livornese model of Free Port starting from the Mediterranean food shortage in the 90s of the XVI century. Following its first affirmation, this economic model was recalled, modified and applied with different outcomes on a worldwide scale. In the port town of Marseille, the young king Louis XIV, upon advice of his counsellor and minister Jean Baptiste Colbert, proclaimed a new free port. The local Chamber of Commerce was in charge of its management. It was a powerful institution composed by the main merchant dynasties in town. The history of Marseille’s free port has been studied by several authors from the XIX century onwards (Jules Julliany, Paul Masson, Gaston Rambert, Louis Dermigny, Charles Carriere, Guillaume Calafat, and Junko Therese Takeda). We can point out some key dates: 1669, first edict of the free port; 1703, free port’s renewal; 1789, abolition of all feudal privileges in France during the French Revolution. Weather in the first studies the focus was mainly on Colbert’s work and relation with the Chamber of Commerce, most of the recent studies focus on the practical management of this complex institution. In my paper, I will take into account the turbulent years between the French Revolution and the Bourbon Restauration from the point of view of the free port’s public debates. During these years, the political and administrative debates reached their apex. The Chamber of Commerce wanted to keep the free port as it was before 1789. Those who wanted to erase every relic of the feudal government and those who were seeking for a compromise split the parliament into different factions. I want to reconstruct these debates with the analysis of the documentation from the Archives Nationales in Paris and the regional and municipal archives in Marseille. I will refer to the letters and reports between the Chamber of Commerce and the Revolutionary or Royal ministers, to the parliamentary debates and other kind of documents and events. Even the emperor Napoleon was seriously involved into this quarrel. I will cite Genoa’s free port, since at some point there was a proposal to imitate it by Marseille. These are unexploited sources and can help to shed light on the administrative issues of such a wide institution and on the fight for its political control. Moreover, I want to consider the free port’s ideological representation, its symbolical and political value in the views of the different subjects involved.
International Conference on Risk and the Insurance Business in History RIBH 2019, 2019
This paper focuses on the analysis of investments and risk management in international maritime t... more This paper focuses on the analysis of investments and risk management in international maritime trade through the study of one of the oldest lived legal instrument: general average (GA). General average is a risk-spreading technique: it redistributes the expenses that can befall ships and cargoes from the time of loading until their unloading (due to accidents, jettison, capture and unexpected expenses) among all the parties involved in the business cycle: for this reason, it can be defined a mutualistic form of protection. Thanks to the development of seaborne trade, Early Modern age is considered the first era of globalisation: in this period, GA procedures were governed by rules, which were mostly acknowledged and accepted across all the European ports, even if in presence of substantive differences in their practice. The documents regarding GA procedures (reports, calculations and attached documents – bills of lading, charter contracts, etc.) are extremely rich in quantitative data, especially when a legal conflict occurred. Plenty of material has survived since the late middle ages in archives across Europe. The analysis of these unexploited archival sources can provide a wealth of evidence both quantitative and qualitative to elucidate how maritime conflicts were resolved in a small-urbanized state such as the Republic of Genoa, defined by Fernand Braudel as an early centre of capitalism. The specific institution in charge for this procedure was the Conservatori del Mare, to which were addressed all the declaration from the Republic and elsewhere across Mediterranean and Europe. The aim of my proposal is to present some preliminary findings based on GA reports preserved in the State Archive of Genoa (more than 3.000 documents of the 17th and 18th centuries, starting from the 1590s). It is hard to evaluate the potential of this source: for example, from the analysis of the value of the ship and the freight paid on the merchandise, in relation with the damages suffered, we can estimate the risk percentage in Early Modern maritime trade. At the same time, we can analyse and compare the first part of an average between them. This part was written in a narrative style and it can help us to understand which were the risks on board for the merchandises as well as the merchants, and how the captains and sailors tried to avoid them.
Central Governments and the Resolution of Maritime Conflicts, 1200–1600, 2018
This paper focuses on the analysis of investments and risk management in international maritime t... more This paper focuses on the analysis of investments and risk management in international maritime trade through the study of one of the oldest lived legal instrument: general average (GA). It’s possible to trace the origins of this institute since classical antiquity (Lex Rhodia de jactu) and its evolution in medieval and early modern age, but nowadays the debate surrounding the reforms of the York Antwerp Rules (issued as “York Rules” in 1864) is still lively. General average is a risk-spreading technique: it redistributes the expenses which can befall ships and cargoes from the time of loading until their unloading (due to accidents, jettison, capture and unexpected expenses) among all the parties involved in the business cycle: for this reason, it can be considered a mutualistic form of protection. Thanks to the development of seaborne trade, Early Modern age is considered the first era of globalisation: in this period, GA procedures were governed by rules which were mostly acknowledged and accepted across all the European ports, even if in presence of substantive differences in their practice. The documents regarding GA procedures (reports, calculations and attached documents – bills of lading, charter contracts, etc.) are extremely rich in quantitative data, especially when a legal conflict occurred. Plenty of material has survived since the late middle ages in archives across Europe. The analysis of these unexploited archival sources can provide a wealth of evidence both quantitative and qualitative to elucidate how maritime conflicts were resolved in a small urbanized state such as the Republic of Genoa, defined by Fernand Braudel as an early centre of capitalism. The specific institution in charge for this procedure was the Conservatori del Mare, to which were addressed all the declaration from the Republic and elsewhere across Mediterranean and Europe. A systematic study on GA as an instrument to spread the risk and to analyse the different strategies adopted by merchants has been neglected by scholars for long time, with very few exceptions1. The aim of my proposal is to present some preliminary findings based on GA reports preserved in the State Archive of Genoa (more than 3.000 documents for the 17th and 18th centuries, starting from the 1590s). I am working on a classification of these documents and they are going to be put in a structured database, which will include also data collected by the other scholars of the research team related to GA reports presented in other European ports. We will develop a comparative and systematic study covering several nodal points of maritime trade across Europe.
Le procedure di Avaria Generale nei fondi giudiziari toscani e liguri (secc. XVI-XVIII), 2019
Il contributo analizza il ruolo delle magistrature genovesi, e in particolare dei Conservatori de... more Il contributo analizza il ruolo delle magistrature genovesi, e in particolare dei Conservatori del Mare, nella gestione delle pratiche di avaria marittima tra XVI e XVII secolo.
Sharing risk: General Average, 6th-21st Centuries, 2019
The focus of this paper will be on General Average legislation and the practical resolution of Ge... more The focus of this paper will be on General Average legislation and the practical resolution of Genoese GAs procedures. General Average is one of the most important themes, but also one of the most complicated ones, in maritime law. In the first part of this paper, I will investigate GA’s definition in the Genoese Republic’s statutes and in contemporary literature, following a comparison with nearby states . Genoa was a maritime republic and one of the main port cities in the Mediterranean. During the Early Modern age, it was a leading centre of international finance and a great hub of maritime trade. The importance of Genoa, of its port and its trade in these centuries were the reasons why many General Averages were declared here. In the second part of the paper, I will take into account a couple of peculiar cases with legal or administrative issues. My aim will be to analyse and retrace the strategies adopted by the magistracy, the merchants and the captain during a GA resolution. In this way, I will be able to show how the rules were adapted and modified in order to “fit” the different situations.
The port town of Marseille, in Provence, was one of the main hubs of international commerce durin... more The port town of Marseille, in Provence, was one of the main hubs of international commerce during the XVIII century. Among the reasons of its success, historians are still debating on the role of its free port. Following the forced submission of Marseille to the young king Louis XIV after a revolt, since 1660 French administrators and, in particular, the minister of Finance Colbert, tried to control the expansion of the town on the Mediterranean. The nobility was excluded from the main charges, the “echevinage”. The main merchants families, reunited in the Chamber of Commerce, were put in charge. After the reformation of the administrative sphere, the customs policy’s one followed. The free port was meant to focus on Marseille all the French commerce in the Mediterranean, making the city a great market for national and foreign goods. Regardless of the effective role of the free port in the development of French commerce, what I would like to investigate in this paper is the “symbolic” role this economic measure represented for the local elites. I would like to show this by taking in consideration the debates around the free port during the revolutionary years and after, until the definitive abolition of this institution in 1821.
The object of this paper focuses on the analysis of investments and risk management in maritime t... more The object of this paper focuses on the analysis of investments and risk management in maritime trade through the study of one of the oldest lived legal instrument, that is general average (GA). It’s possible to trace the origins of this institute since classical antiquity (Lex Rhodia de jactu) and its evolution in medieval and early modern age. Nowadays the debate surrounding the reforms of the York Antwerp Rules (issued as “York Rules” in 1864) is still lively. General average is a risk-spreading technique: it redistributes the expenses which can befall ships and cargoes from the time of loading until their unloading (due to accidents, jettison, capture and unexpected expenses) among all the parties involved in the business cycle, and for this reason it can be considered a mutualistic form of protection. GA played and still plays an essential role in the redistribution of transaction costs, and being a form of strictly mutual self-protection, never evolved into a speculative financial instrument as, for example, insurance did; it therefore it represents an excellent case of long-term effectiveness of a non-market economic phenomenon.
Come spesso si dice, in Internet c'è di tutto. Quello che non si analizza, però, è a che livello ... more Come spesso si dice, in Internet c'è di tutto. Quello che non si analizza, però, è a che livello di compenetrazione una determinata materia sia. Nel caso della Storia, ad esempio, sono chiaramente fioriti ambiti di nicchia in cui community di appassionati discutono, si informano e condividono le proprie fonti. Ma qual è lo stato della Storia (e della sua comunicazione) sui siti di massa, su quelli, insomma, comunemente chiamati social media? I paper di questo panel si propongono si di analizzare la situazione attuale prendendo diversi siti di larghissima diffusione mondiale ma anche, ed anzi, soprattutto, di esaminare le possibilità che questi siti offrono ai public historian per tentare di comunicare ad un pubblico sempre più interattivo ed ampio. Si analizzeranno sia siti specializzati nella comunicazione audio video come You Tube e Twitch, che piattaforme più generaliste come Facebook. È possibile, per dei progetti di public history, approcciare un pubblico sempre alla ricerca di intrattenimento seriale ma non serioso, e con necessità ed abitudini tra le più varie, senza per questo abbandonare la propria mission e senza banalizzare le tematiche trattate?
As is often said, there is everything on the Internet. What is not analyzed, however, is at what level of interpenetration a given matter is. In the case of History, for example, niche areas are clearly flourishing in which communities of enthusiasts discuss, inform and share their sources. But what is the state of history (and its communication) on mass sites, on those, in short, commonly called social media? The papers of this panel propose to analyze the current situation by taking several widely spread sites worldwide but also, and above all, to examine the possibilities that these sites offer to the public historians to try to communicate to an increasingly interactive and wide audience. We will analyze both sites specialized in audio video communication such as Youtube and Twitch, and more generalist platforms such as Facebook. Is it possible, for public history projects, to approach an audience that is always looking for serial but not serious entertainment, and with the most varied needs and habits, withou t abandoning its mission and without trivializing the topics they dealt with?
Since the end of the XVI century, a new economic model began spreading all over Europe, starting ... more Since the end of the XVI century, a new economic model began spreading all over Europe, starting from the Tyrrhenian Sea: the free port institution. Despite historians are still arguing about its first configuration and its birth (the main pretenders are Genoa and Livorno), we can distinguish two main aspects in the statutes, according to Thomas Allison Kirk:
- Focus on customs policy and the presence of privileged store spaces. - Focus on foreign merchants and invitation to move to the port, even by the creation of new spaces and the concession of permissions.
These two aspect constitute the two concepts of Entrepôt and Emporium. In the end, the application of these principles differed quite much from the edicts and from one port to another. I would like to show the role of foreign merchants in the free ports’ edicts of Genoa and Marseille in comparison with the well-known Livorno's free port with some examples of the limits of these policies.
Panel presentation of our research at the ExHistoria talk, University of Exeter. I presented a PP... more Panel presentation of our research at the ExHistoria talk, University of Exeter. I presented a PPT on Genoese general averages.
Partecipazione al seminario SISEM per giovani studiosi dell'Età Moderna. Intervento in panel con ... more Partecipazione al seminario SISEM per giovani studiosi dell'Età Moderna. Intervento in panel con la dott.ssa Gaia Bruno (Napoli, Federico II) e il dott. Andrea Giordano (Napoli, Federico II). Intervento individuale dal titolo: Essere straniero in un porto franco. Politiche di accoglienza e contraddizioni nel porto franco di Marsiglia
Si tratta di una lezione che ho tenuto a degli studenti di Geografia dell'Université Ai-Marseille... more Si tratta di una lezione che ho tenuto a degli studenti di Geografia dell'Université Ai-Marseille (iscritti nei corsi di Laurea Specialistica e Magistrale) sulla storia del porto di Genova: funzionamento, evoluzione della struttura e del suo ruolo dal Medioevo fino ad oggi.
The AveTransRisk database was recently published by the ERC project "Average-Transaction Costs an... more The AveTransRisk database was recently published by the ERC project "Average-Transaction Costs and Risk Management during the First Globalization (Sixteenth-Eighteenth Century)". It captures data on early modern maritime trade thanks to the use of an understudied source: General Average procedures. The database contains information on thousands of cases, aiming to become the repository for such records. The article discusses the particularities of the data from Genoa and Livorno and the solutions put in place to capture it, outlining the choices that confronted the database creators during the four-year period of construction. It then outlines the technical solutions implemented and show the database's potential for historical analysis thanks to its built-in computational tools.
This research note introduces the award-winning AveTransRisk database, the result of an extensive... more This research note introduces the award-winning AveTransRisk database, the result of an extensive project capturing data on early modern maritime trade, specifically in the Mediterranean region. It focuses on the concept of General Average, where shipmasters voluntarily sacrificed cargo to save their vessels from peril. General Average procedures, including accident reports and damage calculations, provide valuable information for economic and maritime historians. The AveTransRisk database offers detailed insights into routes, cargo, weather conditions, ships, seafarers and transaction costs. It enables scholars to examine broader topics such as comparative maritime economies, the evolution of legal institutions and risk management. Fully relational and equipped with advanced search functions and mapping capabilities, the database facilitates comprehensive analysis. As it expands to include voyages from other European archives, its usability and resilience increase. Supported by the...
This research note introduces the award-winning AveTransRisk database, the result of an extensive... more This research note introduces the award-winning AveTransRisk database, the result of an extensive project capturing data on early modern maritime trade, specifically in the Mediterranean region.The AveTransRisk database offers detailed insights into routes, cargo, weather conditions, ships, seafarers and transaction costs. It enables scholars to examine broader topics such as comparative maritime economies, the evolution of legal institutions and risk management. Fully relational and equipped with advanced search functions and mapping capabilities, the database facilitates comprehensive analysis.
The construction of free ports: political communication, commercial development and administrative control, 2019
When scholars deal with Free Ports’ spreading in Europe in Early Modern Age, they often analyse i... more When scholars deal with Free Ports’ spreading in Europe in Early Modern Age, they often analyse its first phase. According with recent researches and publications, the birth of the Free Port institution is an Early Modern phenomenon occurred at the beginning of the XVII century. In my thesis, I claimed a parallel development between the Genoese and Livornese model of Free Port starting from the Mediterranean food shortage in the 90s of the XVI century. Following its first affirmation, this economic model was recalled, modified and applied with different outcomes on a worldwide scale. In the port town of Marseille, the young king Louis XIV, upon advice of his counsellor and minister Jean Baptiste Colbert, proclaimed a new free port. The local Chamber of Commerce was in charge of its management. It was a powerful institution composed by the main merchant dynasties in town. The history of Marseille’s free port has been studied by several authors from the XIX century onwards (Jules Julliany, Paul Masson, Gaston Rambert, Louis Dermigny, Charles Carriere, Guillaume Calafat, and Junko Therese Takeda). We can point out some key dates: 1669, first edict of the free port; 1703, free port’s renewal; 1789, abolition of all feudal privileges in France during the French Revolution. Weather in the first studies the focus was mainly on Colbert’s work and relation with the Chamber of Commerce, most of the recent studies focus on the practical management of this complex institution. In my paper, I will take into account the turbulent years between the French Revolution and the Bourbon Restauration from the point of view of the free port’s public debates. During these years, the political and administrative debates reached their apex. The Chamber of Commerce wanted to keep the free port as it was before 1789. Those who wanted to erase every relic of the feudal government and those who were seeking for a compromise split the parliament into different factions. I want to reconstruct these debates with the analysis of the documentation from the Archives Nationales in Paris and the regional and municipal archives in Marseille. I will refer to the letters and reports between the Chamber of Commerce and the Revolutionary or Royal ministers, to the parliamentary debates and other kind of documents and events. Even the emperor Napoleon was seriously involved into this quarrel. I will cite Genoa’s free port, since at some point there was a proposal to imitate it by Marseille. These are unexploited sources and can help to shed light on the administrative issues of such a wide institution and on the fight for its political control. Moreover, I want to consider the free port’s ideological representation, its symbolical and political value in the views of the different subjects involved.
International Conference on Risk and the Insurance Business in History RIBH 2019, 2019
This paper focuses on the analysis of investments and risk management in international maritime t... more This paper focuses on the analysis of investments and risk management in international maritime trade through the study of one of the oldest lived legal instrument: general average (GA). General average is a risk-spreading technique: it redistributes the expenses that can befall ships and cargoes from the time of loading until their unloading (due to accidents, jettison, capture and unexpected expenses) among all the parties involved in the business cycle: for this reason, it can be defined a mutualistic form of protection. Thanks to the development of seaborne trade, Early Modern age is considered the first era of globalisation: in this period, GA procedures were governed by rules, which were mostly acknowledged and accepted across all the European ports, even if in presence of substantive differences in their practice. The documents regarding GA procedures (reports, calculations and attached documents – bills of lading, charter contracts, etc.) are extremely rich in quantitative data, especially when a legal conflict occurred. Plenty of material has survived since the late middle ages in archives across Europe. The analysis of these unexploited archival sources can provide a wealth of evidence both quantitative and qualitative to elucidate how maritime conflicts were resolved in a small-urbanized state such as the Republic of Genoa, defined by Fernand Braudel as an early centre of capitalism. The specific institution in charge for this procedure was the Conservatori del Mare, to which were addressed all the declaration from the Republic and elsewhere across Mediterranean and Europe. The aim of my proposal is to present some preliminary findings based on GA reports preserved in the State Archive of Genoa (more than 3.000 documents of the 17th and 18th centuries, starting from the 1590s). It is hard to evaluate the potential of this source: for example, from the analysis of the value of the ship and the freight paid on the merchandise, in relation with the damages suffered, we can estimate the risk percentage in Early Modern maritime trade. At the same time, we can analyse and compare the first part of an average between them. This part was written in a narrative style and it can help us to understand which were the risks on board for the merchandises as well as the merchants, and how the captains and sailors tried to avoid them.
Central Governments and the Resolution of Maritime Conflicts, 1200–1600, 2018
This paper focuses on the analysis of investments and risk management in international maritime t... more This paper focuses on the analysis of investments and risk management in international maritime trade through the study of one of the oldest lived legal instrument: general average (GA). It’s possible to trace the origins of this institute since classical antiquity (Lex Rhodia de jactu) and its evolution in medieval and early modern age, but nowadays the debate surrounding the reforms of the York Antwerp Rules (issued as “York Rules” in 1864) is still lively. General average is a risk-spreading technique: it redistributes the expenses which can befall ships and cargoes from the time of loading until their unloading (due to accidents, jettison, capture and unexpected expenses) among all the parties involved in the business cycle: for this reason, it can be considered a mutualistic form of protection. Thanks to the development of seaborne trade, Early Modern age is considered the first era of globalisation: in this period, GA procedures were governed by rules which were mostly acknowledged and accepted across all the European ports, even if in presence of substantive differences in their practice. The documents regarding GA procedures (reports, calculations and attached documents – bills of lading, charter contracts, etc.) are extremely rich in quantitative data, especially when a legal conflict occurred. Plenty of material has survived since the late middle ages in archives across Europe. The analysis of these unexploited archival sources can provide a wealth of evidence both quantitative and qualitative to elucidate how maritime conflicts were resolved in a small urbanized state such as the Republic of Genoa, defined by Fernand Braudel as an early centre of capitalism. The specific institution in charge for this procedure was the Conservatori del Mare, to which were addressed all the declaration from the Republic and elsewhere across Mediterranean and Europe. A systematic study on GA as an instrument to spread the risk and to analyse the different strategies adopted by merchants has been neglected by scholars for long time, with very few exceptions1. The aim of my proposal is to present some preliminary findings based on GA reports preserved in the State Archive of Genoa (more than 3.000 documents for the 17th and 18th centuries, starting from the 1590s). I am working on a classification of these documents and they are going to be put in a structured database, which will include also data collected by the other scholars of the research team related to GA reports presented in other European ports. We will develop a comparative and systematic study covering several nodal points of maritime trade across Europe.
Le procedure di Avaria Generale nei fondi giudiziari toscani e liguri (secc. XVI-XVIII), 2019
Il contributo analizza il ruolo delle magistrature genovesi, e in particolare dei Conservatori de... more Il contributo analizza il ruolo delle magistrature genovesi, e in particolare dei Conservatori del Mare, nella gestione delle pratiche di avaria marittima tra XVI e XVII secolo.
Sharing risk: General Average, 6th-21st Centuries, 2019
The focus of this paper will be on General Average legislation and the practical resolution of Ge... more The focus of this paper will be on General Average legislation and the practical resolution of Genoese GAs procedures. General Average is one of the most important themes, but also one of the most complicated ones, in maritime law. In the first part of this paper, I will investigate GA’s definition in the Genoese Republic’s statutes and in contemporary literature, following a comparison with nearby states . Genoa was a maritime republic and one of the main port cities in the Mediterranean. During the Early Modern age, it was a leading centre of international finance and a great hub of maritime trade. The importance of Genoa, of its port and its trade in these centuries were the reasons why many General Averages were declared here. In the second part of the paper, I will take into account a couple of peculiar cases with legal or administrative issues. My aim will be to analyse and retrace the strategies adopted by the magistracy, the merchants and the captain during a GA resolution. In this way, I will be able to show how the rules were adapted and modified in order to “fit” the different situations.
The port town of Marseille, in Provence, was one of the main hubs of international commerce durin... more The port town of Marseille, in Provence, was one of the main hubs of international commerce during the XVIII century. Among the reasons of its success, historians are still debating on the role of its free port. Following the forced submission of Marseille to the young king Louis XIV after a revolt, since 1660 French administrators and, in particular, the minister of Finance Colbert, tried to control the expansion of the town on the Mediterranean. The nobility was excluded from the main charges, the “echevinage”. The main merchants families, reunited in the Chamber of Commerce, were put in charge. After the reformation of the administrative sphere, the customs policy’s one followed. The free port was meant to focus on Marseille all the French commerce in the Mediterranean, making the city a great market for national and foreign goods. Regardless of the effective role of the free port in the development of French commerce, what I would like to investigate in this paper is the “symbolic” role this economic measure represented for the local elites. I would like to show this by taking in consideration the debates around the free port during the revolutionary years and after, until the definitive abolition of this institution in 1821.
The object of this paper focuses on the analysis of investments and risk management in maritime t... more The object of this paper focuses on the analysis of investments and risk management in maritime trade through the study of one of the oldest lived legal instrument, that is general average (GA). It’s possible to trace the origins of this institute since classical antiquity (Lex Rhodia de jactu) and its evolution in medieval and early modern age. Nowadays the debate surrounding the reforms of the York Antwerp Rules (issued as “York Rules” in 1864) is still lively. General average is a risk-spreading technique: it redistributes the expenses which can befall ships and cargoes from the time of loading until their unloading (due to accidents, jettison, capture and unexpected expenses) among all the parties involved in the business cycle, and for this reason it can be considered a mutualistic form of protection. GA played and still plays an essential role in the redistribution of transaction costs, and being a form of strictly mutual self-protection, never evolved into a speculative financial instrument as, for example, insurance did; it therefore it represents an excellent case of long-term effectiveness of a non-market economic phenomenon.
Come spesso si dice, in Internet c'è di tutto. Quello che non si analizza, però, è a che livello ... more Come spesso si dice, in Internet c'è di tutto. Quello che non si analizza, però, è a che livello di compenetrazione una determinata materia sia. Nel caso della Storia, ad esempio, sono chiaramente fioriti ambiti di nicchia in cui community di appassionati discutono, si informano e condividono le proprie fonti. Ma qual è lo stato della Storia (e della sua comunicazione) sui siti di massa, su quelli, insomma, comunemente chiamati social media? I paper di questo panel si propongono si di analizzare la situazione attuale prendendo diversi siti di larghissima diffusione mondiale ma anche, ed anzi, soprattutto, di esaminare le possibilità che questi siti offrono ai public historian per tentare di comunicare ad un pubblico sempre più interattivo ed ampio. Si analizzeranno sia siti specializzati nella comunicazione audio video come You Tube e Twitch, che piattaforme più generaliste come Facebook. È possibile, per dei progetti di public history, approcciare un pubblico sempre alla ricerca di intrattenimento seriale ma non serioso, e con necessità ed abitudini tra le più varie, senza per questo abbandonare la propria mission e senza banalizzare le tematiche trattate?
As is often said, there is everything on the Internet. What is not analyzed, however, is at what level of interpenetration a given matter is. In the case of History, for example, niche areas are clearly flourishing in which communities of enthusiasts discuss, inform and share their sources. But what is the state of history (and its communication) on mass sites, on those, in short, commonly called social media? The papers of this panel propose to analyze the current situation by taking several widely spread sites worldwide but also, and above all, to examine the possibilities that these sites offer to the public historians to try to communicate to an increasingly interactive and wide audience. We will analyze both sites specialized in audio video communication such as Youtube and Twitch, and more generalist platforms such as Facebook. Is it possible, for public history projects, to approach an audience that is always looking for serial but not serious entertainment, and with the most varied needs and habits, withou t abandoning its mission and without trivializing the topics they dealt with?
Since the end of the XVI century, a new economic model began spreading all over Europe, starting ... more Since the end of the XVI century, a new economic model began spreading all over Europe, starting from the Tyrrhenian Sea: the free port institution. Despite historians are still arguing about its first configuration and its birth (the main pretenders are Genoa and Livorno), we can distinguish two main aspects in the statutes, according to Thomas Allison Kirk:
- Focus on customs policy and the presence of privileged store spaces. - Focus on foreign merchants and invitation to move to the port, even by the creation of new spaces and the concession of permissions.
These two aspect constitute the two concepts of Entrepôt and Emporium. In the end, the application of these principles differed quite much from the edicts and from one port to another. I would like to show the role of foreign merchants in the free ports’ edicts of Genoa and Marseille in comparison with the well-known Livorno's free port with some examples of the limits of these policies.
Panel presentation of our research at the ExHistoria talk, University of Exeter. I presented a PP... more Panel presentation of our research at the ExHistoria talk, University of Exeter. I presented a PPT on Genoese general averages.
Partecipazione al seminario SISEM per giovani studiosi dell'Età Moderna. Intervento in panel con ... more Partecipazione al seminario SISEM per giovani studiosi dell'Età Moderna. Intervento in panel con la dott.ssa Gaia Bruno (Napoli, Federico II) e il dott. Andrea Giordano (Napoli, Federico II). Intervento individuale dal titolo: Essere straniero in un porto franco. Politiche di accoglienza e contraddizioni nel porto franco di Marsiglia
Si tratta di una lezione che ho tenuto a degli studenti di Geografia dell'Université Ai-Marseille... more Si tratta di una lezione che ho tenuto a degli studenti di Geografia dell'Université Ai-Marseille (iscritti nei corsi di Laurea Specialistica e Magistrale) sulla storia del porto di Genova: funzionamento, evoluzione della struttura e del suo ruolo dal Medioevo fino ad oggi.
The AveTransRisk database was recently published by the ERC project "Average-Transaction Costs an... more The AveTransRisk database was recently published by the ERC project "Average-Transaction Costs and Risk Management during the First Globalization (Sixteenth-Eighteenth Century)". It captures data on early modern maritime trade thanks to the use of an understudied source: General Average procedures. The database contains information on thousands of cases, aiming to become the repository for such records. The article discusses the particularities of the data from Genoa and Livorno and the solutions put in place to capture it, outlining the choices that confronted the database creators during the four-year period of construction. It then outlines the technical solutions implemented and show the database's potential for historical analysis thanks to its built-in computational tools.
This research note introduces the award-winning AveTransRisk database, the result of an extensive... more This research note introduces the award-winning AveTransRisk database, the result of an extensive project capturing data on early modern maritime trade, specifically in the Mediterranean region. It focuses on the concept of General Average, where shipmasters voluntarily sacrificed cargo to save their vessels from peril. General Average procedures, including accident reports and damage calculations, provide valuable information for economic and maritime historians. The AveTransRisk database offers detailed insights into routes, cargo, weather conditions, ships, seafarers and transaction costs. It enables scholars to examine broader topics such as comparative maritime economies, the evolution of legal institutions and risk management. Fully relational and equipped with advanced search functions and mapping capabilities, the database facilitates comprehensive analysis. As it expands to include voyages from other European archives, its usability and resilience increase. Supported by the...
This research note introduces the award-winning AveTransRisk database, the result of an extensive... more This research note introduces the award-winning AveTransRisk database, the result of an extensive project capturing data on early modern maritime trade, specifically in the Mediterranean region.The AveTransRisk database offers detailed insights into routes, cargo, weather conditions, ships, seafarers and transaction costs. It enables scholars to examine broader topics such as comparative maritime economies, the evolution of legal institutions and risk management. Fully relational and equipped with advanced search functions and mapping capabilities, the database facilitates comprehensive analysis.
This paper investigates the main features of the Genoese insurance market between 1564 and 1572, ... more This paper investigates the main features of the Genoese insurance market between 1564 and 1572, thanks to the analysis of an unpublished tax register that preserves all insurance policies drafted in Genoa in that period. Marine insurance, intended as an archetypical risk-shifting technique, is probably the oldest financial instrument intended solely to protect against the economic consequences of commercial losses. Conventional premium insurance was developed as a tool to transfer risk during the commercial revolution of the late middle ages. This development was first led by Italian cities, among whom Genoa played a key role. However, Genoese operators involved in the insurance sectors, which belonged almost exclusively to the patrician families ruling the republic, acted as a mutual “risk-community” in a semi-closed market: a sort of “syndicate”. They shared among them the risks of maritime routes calling at the port of Genoa. Insurance was a zero-sum game, with low losses and ga...
General Average and Risk Management in Medieval and Early Modern Maritime Business, 2023
General Average (GA) is an institution aimed at better bearing the business risks of maritime tra... more General Average (GA) is an institution aimed at better bearing the business risks of maritime trade in the face of accidental events. It redistributes the cost of damage to a ship or the goods it is carrying if it becomes necessary to save either the ship or the goods in an emergency. The evolution of the Genoese legislation, analyzed through the Genoese Civil Statutes, legal treaties and GA practices, provides an overview of a local reality with deep ramifications at Mediterranean and European level.
This paper investigates the main features of the Genoese insurance market between 1564 and 1572, ... more This paper investigates the main features of the Genoese insurance market between 1564 and 1572, thanks to the analysis of an unpublished tax register that preserves all insurance policies drafted in Genoa in that period. Marine insurance, intended as an archetypical risk-shifting technique, is probably the oldest financial instrument intended solely to protect against the economic consequences of commercial losses. Conventional premium insurance was developed as a tool to transfer risk during the commercial revolution of the late middle ages. This development was first led by Italian cities, among whom Genoa played a key role. However, Genoese operators involved in the insurance sectors, which belonged almost exclusively to the patrician families ruling the republic, acted as a mutual "riskcommunity" in a semi-closed market: a sort of "syndicate". They shared among them the risks of maritime routes calling at the port of Genoa. Insurance was a zero-sum game, with low losses and gains that did not allow a true single-sector specialisation.
Annali della Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. Fondazione Luigi Einaudi , 2022
This paper quantitatively analyses the role of transaction costs in Northern vessels' operating e... more This paper quantitatively analyses the role of transaction costs in Northern vessels' operating expenses versus their Mediterranean competitors between 1590 and 1616. It is based on an understudied risk-sharing institution, General Average (GA), and on data extrapolated from the AveTransRisk database and unpublished archival sources. We apply a Structural Vector Autoregression Model (SVAR) analysis by considering the Northern Invasion phenomenon as a series of structural shocks on Mediterranean seaborne trade. The SVAR model will test how the greater reliability of Northern vessels, constantly highlighted by the literature on the Northern Invasion, impacted on the repartition of damages following a GA, considered as a proxy of transaction costs. Results support the interpretation according to whom the transaction costs played a relevant role in the persistency of the Northern Invasion in the Mediterranean Sea.
The free port has played a primary role in the Modern Age Mediterranean economic policy. In order... more The free port has played a primary role in the Modern Age Mediterranean economic policy. In order to give a boost to the local economy, favourable regulations to the arrival and rapid integration of foreigners within the pre-existing socio-economic environment were established. In the Mediterranean ports – namely Genoa, Leghorn, Marseille, Trieste and Fiume, Messina, Nice, etc. – a great number of ship owners, vendors, simple traders or salesmen, together with their relatives, house helpers and employees used therefore to arrive. They moved there whilst maintaining tight relations with their motherlands. The local elites, scared of losing their power, opposed these ventures. It is possible to pinpoint and single out a few common elements in the regulation of these ports, which appealed to the contemporaries, and thanks to which social, cultural, linguistic and political barriers were being shattered. What stands out from this analysis is an image of a dynamic and open-minded Mediter...
This work aims to investigate the evolution of general average and insur-ance regulations and pro... more This work aims to investigate the evolution of general average and insur-ance regulations and procedures in Genoa, as well as the ways in which they intersected, with a view to fully understanding the mechanisms for managing maritime trade risks from the late Middle Ages to the early modern age. To this end, by using two complementary sources \u2013 that is, general average claims and insurance policies \u2013 and by cross-referencing some available data sets dating to the period between the end of the sixteenth century and the be-ginning of the seventeenth century, we will attempt to determine how danger-ous the routes connecting the port of Genoa used to be. Finally, we will give some examples to demonstrate how both institutions available to maritime merchants were actually working and complementing each other. From this point of view, Genoa offers a unique vantage point, due to the important role played by its port and its highly dynamic and resourceful businessmen, who succeeded in developing cutting-edge financial instruments, the use of which would quickly spread from Genoa to all the other European market
This work analyses the activities of Genoese merchant communities in the grain trade in western M... more This work analyses the activities of Genoese merchant communities in the grain trade in western Mediterranean markets. Our goal is to shed light on their ability to integrate into foreign lands, taking advantage of their privileged position within the Spanish Crown. Our analysis is focused on two case studies, strictly connected from a theoretical point of view: Sicily and Tabarka. Both Genoese minorities living on these two islands used the port of Genoa as their commercial hub. Regarding Sicily, this study has mostly drawn information from a yet unexploited source: general average procedures (GA) drawn up in Genoa. These documents have been collected in an online database soon to be published as part of the ERC-funded AveTransRisk project. They offer valuable insights on shipmasters and merchants, cargo values, ports of destination, wheat prices, etc. For the trade in North African wheat, we have mostly used documents related to the Genoese ‘colony’ of Tabarka, administered by the Lomellini family. These sources are kept in the Genoese archives as well as in the Archives Nationales of Paris.
Maritime Risk Management. Essays on the History of Marine Insurance, General Average and Sea Loan, 2021
This work aims to investigate the evolution of general average and insur-ance regulations and pro... more This work aims to investigate the evolution of general average and insur-ance regulations and procedures in Genoa, as well as the ways in which they intersected, with a view to fully understanding the mechanisms for managing maritime trade risks from the late Middle Ages to the early modern age. To this end, by using two complementary sources – i.e. general average claims and insurance policies – and by cross-referencing some available data sets da-ting to the period between the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century, we will attempt to determine how dangerous the routes connecting the port of Genoa used to be. Finally, we will give some ex-amples to demonstrate how both institutions available to maritime merchants were actually working and complementing each other. From this point of view, Genoa offers a unique vantage point, due to the important role played by its port and its highly dynamic and resourceful businessmen, who succeeded in developing cutting-edge financial instruments, the use of which would quickly spread from Genoa to all the other European markets
Business History. Special issue paper in Minorities and Grain Trade in Early Modern Europe, 2021
This work analyses the activities of Genoese merchant communities in the grain trade in western M... more This work analyses the activities of Genoese merchant communities in the grain trade in western Mediterranean markets. Our goal is to shed light on their ability to integrate into foreign lands, taking advantage of their privileged position within the Spanish Crown. Our analysis is focussed on two case studies, strictly connected from a theoretical point of view: Sicily and Tabarka. Both Genoese minorities living on these two islands used the port of Genoa as their commercial hub. Regarding Sicily, this study has mostly drawn information from a yet unexploited source: general average procedures drawn up in Genoa. General average (GA) was (and still is nowadays) a legal instrument used in maritime trade to share between all parties involved the expenses which can befall ships and cargoes from the time of their loading aboard until their unloading (due to accidents, jettison, etc.). These documents have been collected in an online database soon to be published as part of the ERC-funded AveTransRisk project. They offer valuable insights on shipmasters and merchants, cargo values, ports of destination, wheat prices, etc. All the sources are available on the online database resulting from the AveTransRisk project, of which we are members (http://humanities-research.exeter.ac.uk/avetransrisk). For the trade in North African wheat, we have mostly used documents related to the Genoese ‘colony’ of Tabarka, administered by the Lomellini family. These sources are kept in the Genoese archives as well as in the Archives Nationales of Paris.
Maritime risk management. Essays on the history of marine insurance, General Average and sea loan, 2021
The concept of risk acquires different meanings depending on the context and it tends to change o... more The concept of risk acquires different meanings depending on the context and it tends to change over time. Only in the late medieval age, with the growth of trade, did risicum – intended as a fortuitous event – become an element that businessmen would take into account and protect themselves against, in order to preserve the profitability of their investments. It is in this framework, and more specifically in maritime transport, that insurance was first developed, as a tool transferring voyage risk, in part or in full, to third parties against payment of a premium. However, within maritime commerce, there is another institution, general average, with much older origins, and designed to better cope with the perils involved with maritime adventure. Its function could be defined as complementary to insurance. This work aims to investigate the evolution of general average and insurance regulations and procedures in Genoa, as well as the ways in which they intersected, with a view to fully understanding the mechanisms for managing maritime trade risks from the late Middle Ages to the early modern age.
Storie d'archivio. Un privatissimo a stampa per Anna Maria Rao, 2020
Il contributo fa parte di un volume dedicato ad Anna Maria Rao. L'oggetto di indagine sono i prog... more Il contributo fa parte di un volume dedicato ad Anna Maria Rao. L'oggetto di indagine sono i progetti e i tentativi di costituzione di un porto franco o di un'area doganale privilegiata all'interno dei confini del Regno di Napoli nel corso dell'età moderna.
The free port has played a primary role in the Modern Age Mediterranean economic policy. In order... more The free port has played a primary role in the Modern Age Mediterranean economic policy. In order to give a boost to the local economy, favourable regulations to the arrival and rapid integration of foreigners within the pre-existing socioeconomic environment were established. In the Mediterranean ports – namely Genoa, Leghorn, Marseille, Trieste and Fiume, Messina, Nice, etc. – a great number of ship owners, vendors, simple traders or salesmen, together with their relatives, house helpers and employees used therefore to arrive. They moved there whilst maintaining tight relations with their motherlands. The local élites, scared of losing their power, opposed these ventures. It is possible to pinpoint and single out a few common elements in the regulation of these ports, which appealed to the contemporaries, and thanks to which social, cultural, linguistic and political barriers were being shattered. What stands out from this analysis is an image of a dynamic and open-minded Mediterranean and Europe.
A seguito della sottomissione forzata al sovrano, nel 1660, a Marsiglia furono avviate grandi rif... more A seguito della sottomissione forzata al sovrano, nel 1660, a Marsiglia furono avviate grandi riforme ed esautorata la nobiltà locale dalla guida del governo. Il potere fu affidato all’élite di mercanti riuniti nella Camera di Commercio e soggetti ad uno stretto controllo provinciale. La capacità di porsi come interlocutore delle autorità centrali, riunendo gli interessi delle principali famiglie di negozianti cittadini, permise un certo grado di flessibilità nei rapporti con il potere. L’esempio di Marsiglia colpisce per l’originale sintesi di libertà e privilegi, frutto di un incrocio fecondo tra volontà dell'autorità regia e contrattazione con i poteri locali. Alla Camera di Commercio spettava l’amministrazione e il controllo della franchigia cittadina: il porto franco, l’invito agli stranieri, il monopolio sanitario, la tassa sul 20% del valore delle merci del Levante portate da stranieri o che avessero fatto scalo prima di arrivare a Marsiglia, posero l’intero territorio cittadino in una condizione di eccezionalità e precarietà, che aveva bisogno di essere continuamente difesa e contrattata.
La posizione di scalo essenziale sulle rotte per il nord Africa e per la costa palestinese, oltre allo statuto particolare, rese la città una sorta di “orient rapproché”, dov’era possibile incontrare mercanti, diplomatici, schiavi o anche semplici avventurieri provenienti dalle principali regioni europee, ma non solo. La presenza di musulmani, inizialmente rappresentata soprattutto dal bagno degli schiavi cittadino, fu costante e latente per tutto il XVII e XVIII secolo, con un progressivo incremento del numero di mercanti a fronte di quello dei rematori sulle galere regie. In questo lavoro indago sulle tracce lasciate dagli individui di fede musulmana e sulle condizioni della loro presenza e assimilazione nel tessuto urbano cittadino. Nonostante l’esiguità numerica, la presenza di stranieri di fede diversa e dei luoghi “tradizionali” loro associati, come chiese o cimiteri, contribuì a creare l’immagine di città portuale intesa come crocevia di popoli e culture studiata dalla recente storiografia.
Questo articolo descrive la nascita del cimitero musulmano di Marsiglia e alcuni esempi di relazi... more Questo articolo descrive la nascita del cimitero musulmano di Marsiglia e alcuni esempi di relazioni tra i “turchi” e le autorità locali. In particolare, dalla storia di questo luogo di inumazione è possibile seguire l’evoluzione della componente musulmana cittadina. Formata prevalentemente da schiavi, arricchitasi in seguito all’arrivo sempre maggiore di mercanti, viaggiatori e diplomatici, essa fu in grado di interfacciarsi a livelli diversi con i centri del potere.
All’interno del filone di studi sulla presenza musulmana nei territori europei in Età moderna, è essenziale la ricerca di luoghi di culto per la fede islamica, in parte riconosciuti e tutelati dalle autorità locali. I luoghi di inumazione, per via della volontà di tenerli separati dalla comunità cristiana anche tramite l’innalzamento di muri perimetrali, costituirono veri e propri rifugi per i fedeli. “Santuari” che permettevano allo straniero di praticare i propri riti anche lontano da casa, il tutto avveniva in continua contrattazione con le autorità locali.
Exeter University. Critical Approaches to Maritime and Naval History – HISM002, 2018
Conflicts over the legal status of maritime and littoral spaces have raged for centuries, and the... more Conflicts over the legal status of maritime and littoral spaces have raged for centuries, and the historiography of maritime legal history is no less divided. From the medieval period onwards, legal compilations such as the Rôles d’Oléron, the Waterrecht and the Llibre del Consolat de Mar were used in a variety of ways to facilitate maritime activities across Europe. These compilations have been central to a contentious debate today amongst lawyers and historians about the existence of a so-called lex mercatoria and/or lex maritima, or a homogeneous set of laws that governed maritime commercial conduct in the medieval period. These compilations continued to have influence in the early modern period, where new challenges came to the fore, underpinned by debates on global empire and the power of the state. This session will explore these medieval and early modern developments, engaging with the theoretical and practical difficulties posed by clashing maritime legal jurisdictions while recognising the value of maritime legal history in exploring a multitude of other historical fields.
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In my thesis, I claimed a parallel development between the Genoese and Livornese model of Free Port starting from the Mediterranean food shortage in the 90s of the XVI century. Following its first affirmation, this economic model was recalled, modified and applied with different outcomes on a worldwide scale. In the port town of Marseille, the young king Louis XIV, upon advice of his counsellor and minister Jean Baptiste Colbert, proclaimed a new free port. The local Chamber of Commerce was in charge of its management. It was a powerful institution composed by the main merchant dynasties in town. The history of Marseille’s free port has been studied by several authors from the XIX century onwards (Jules Julliany, Paul Masson, Gaston Rambert, Louis Dermigny, Charles Carriere, Guillaume Calafat, and Junko Therese Takeda). We can point out some key dates: 1669, first edict of the free port; 1703, free port’s renewal; 1789, abolition of all feudal privileges in France during the French Revolution.
Weather in the first studies the focus was mainly on Colbert’s work and relation with the Chamber of Commerce, most of the recent studies focus on the practical management of this complex institution. In my paper, I will take into account the turbulent years between the French Revolution and the Bourbon Restauration from the point of view of the free port’s public debates. During these years, the political and administrative debates reached their apex. The Chamber of Commerce wanted to keep the free port as it was before 1789. Those who wanted to erase every relic of the feudal government and those who were seeking for a compromise split the parliament into different factions. I want to reconstruct these debates with the analysis of the documentation from the Archives Nationales in Paris and the regional and municipal archives in Marseille.
I will refer to the letters and reports between the Chamber of Commerce and the Revolutionary or Royal ministers, to the parliamentary debates and other kind of documents and events. Even the emperor Napoleon was seriously involved into this quarrel. I will cite Genoa’s free port, since at some point there was a proposal to imitate it by Marseille. These are unexploited sources and can help to shed light on the administrative issues of such a wide institution and on the fight for its political control. Moreover, I want to consider the free port’s ideological representation, its symbolical and political value in the views of the different subjects involved.
The documents regarding GA procedures (reports, calculations and attached documents – bills of lading, charter contracts, etc.) are extremely rich in quantitative data, especially when a legal conflict occurred. Plenty of material has survived since the late middle ages in archives across Europe. The analysis of these unexploited archival sources can provide a wealth of evidence both quantitative and qualitative to elucidate how maritime conflicts were resolved in a small-urbanized state such as the Republic of Genoa, defined by Fernand Braudel as an early centre of capitalism. The specific institution in charge for this procedure was the Conservatori del Mare, to which were addressed all the declaration from the Republic and elsewhere across Mediterranean and Europe.
The aim of my proposal is to present some preliminary findings based on GA reports preserved in the State Archive of Genoa (more than 3.000 documents of the 17th and 18th centuries, starting from the 1590s). It is hard to evaluate the potential of this source: for example, from the analysis of the value of the ship and the freight paid on the merchandise, in relation with the damages suffered, we can estimate the risk percentage in Early Modern maritime trade.
At the same time, we can analyse and compare the first part of an average between them. This part was written in a narrative style and it can help us to understand which were the risks on board for the merchandises as well as the merchants, and how the captains and sailors tried to avoid them.
The documents regarding GA procedures (reports, calculations and attached documents – bills of lading, charter contracts, etc.) are extremely rich in quantitative data, especially when a legal conflict occurred. Plenty of material has survived since the late middle ages in archives across Europe. The analysis of these unexploited archival sources can provide a wealth of evidence both quantitative and qualitative to elucidate how maritime conflicts were resolved in a small urbanized state such as the Republic of Genoa, defined by Fernand Braudel as an early centre of capitalism. The specific institution in charge for this procedure was the Conservatori del Mare, to which were addressed all the declaration from the Republic and elsewhere across Mediterranean and Europe.
A systematic study on GA as an instrument to spread the risk and to analyse the different strategies adopted by merchants has been neglected by scholars for long time, with very few exceptions1.
The aim of my proposal is to present some preliminary findings based on GA reports preserved in the State Archive of Genoa (more than 3.000 documents for the 17th and 18th centuries, starting from the 1590s). I am working on a classification of these documents and they are going to be put in a structured database, which will include also data collected by the other scholars of the research team related to GA reports presented in other European ports. We will develop a comparative and systematic study covering several nodal points of maritime trade across Europe.
Genoa was a maritime republic and one of the main port cities in the Mediterranean. During the Early Modern age, it was a leading centre of international finance and a great hub of maritime trade. The importance of Genoa, of its port and its trade in these centuries were the reasons why many General Averages were declared here.
In the second part of the paper, I will take into account a couple of peculiar cases with legal or administrative issues. My aim will be to analyse and retrace the strategies adopted by the magistracy, the merchants and the captain during a GA resolution. In this way, I will be able to show how the rules were adapted and modified in order to “fit” the different situations.
Regardless of the effective role of the free port in the development of French commerce, what I would like to investigate in this paper is the “symbolic” role this economic measure represented for the local elites. I would like to show this by taking in consideration the debates around the free port during the revolutionary years and after, until the definitive abolition of this institution in 1821.
As is often said, there is everything on the Internet. What is not analyzed, however, is at what level of interpenetration a given matter is. In the case of History, for example, niche areas are clearly flourishing in which communities of enthusiasts discuss, inform and share their sources. But what is the state of history (and its communication) on mass sites, on those, in short, commonly called social media? The papers of this panel propose to analyze the current situation by taking several widely spread sites worldwide but also, and above all, to examine the possibilities that these sites offer to the public historians to try to communicate to an increasingly interactive and wide audience. We will analyze both sites specialized in audio video communication such as Youtube and Twitch, and more generalist platforms such as Facebook. Is it possible, for public history projects, to approach an audience that is always looking for serial but not serious entertainment, and with the most varied needs and habits, withou t abandoning its mission and without trivializing the topics they dealt with?
- Focus on customs policy and the presence of privileged store spaces.
- Focus on foreign merchants and invitation to move to the port, even by the creation of new spaces and the concession of permissions.
These two aspect constitute the two concepts of Entrepôt and Emporium. In the end, the application of these principles differed quite much from the edicts and from one port to another. I would like to show the role of foreign merchants in the free ports’ edicts of Genoa and Marseille in comparison with the well-known Livorno's free port with some examples of the limits of these policies.
Intervento individuale dal titolo: Essere straniero in un porto franco. Politiche di accoglienza e contraddizioni nel porto franco di Marsiglia
In my thesis, I claimed a parallel development between the Genoese and Livornese model of Free Port starting from the Mediterranean food shortage in the 90s of the XVI century. Following its first affirmation, this economic model was recalled, modified and applied with different outcomes on a worldwide scale. In the port town of Marseille, the young king Louis XIV, upon advice of his counsellor and minister Jean Baptiste Colbert, proclaimed a new free port. The local Chamber of Commerce was in charge of its management. It was a powerful institution composed by the main merchant dynasties in town. The history of Marseille’s free port has been studied by several authors from the XIX century onwards (Jules Julliany, Paul Masson, Gaston Rambert, Louis Dermigny, Charles Carriere, Guillaume Calafat, and Junko Therese Takeda). We can point out some key dates: 1669, first edict of the free port; 1703, free port’s renewal; 1789, abolition of all feudal privileges in France during the French Revolution.
Weather in the first studies the focus was mainly on Colbert’s work and relation with the Chamber of Commerce, most of the recent studies focus on the practical management of this complex institution. In my paper, I will take into account the turbulent years between the French Revolution and the Bourbon Restauration from the point of view of the free port’s public debates. During these years, the political and administrative debates reached their apex. The Chamber of Commerce wanted to keep the free port as it was before 1789. Those who wanted to erase every relic of the feudal government and those who were seeking for a compromise split the parliament into different factions. I want to reconstruct these debates with the analysis of the documentation from the Archives Nationales in Paris and the regional and municipal archives in Marseille.
I will refer to the letters and reports between the Chamber of Commerce and the Revolutionary or Royal ministers, to the parliamentary debates and other kind of documents and events. Even the emperor Napoleon was seriously involved into this quarrel. I will cite Genoa’s free port, since at some point there was a proposal to imitate it by Marseille. These are unexploited sources and can help to shed light on the administrative issues of such a wide institution and on the fight for its political control. Moreover, I want to consider the free port’s ideological representation, its symbolical and political value in the views of the different subjects involved.
The documents regarding GA procedures (reports, calculations and attached documents – bills of lading, charter contracts, etc.) are extremely rich in quantitative data, especially when a legal conflict occurred. Plenty of material has survived since the late middle ages in archives across Europe. The analysis of these unexploited archival sources can provide a wealth of evidence both quantitative and qualitative to elucidate how maritime conflicts were resolved in a small-urbanized state such as the Republic of Genoa, defined by Fernand Braudel as an early centre of capitalism. The specific institution in charge for this procedure was the Conservatori del Mare, to which were addressed all the declaration from the Republic and elsewhere across Mediterranean and Europe.
The aim of my proposal is to present some preliminary findings based on GA reports preserved in the State Archive of Genoa (more than 3.000 documents of the 17th and 18th centuries, starting from the 1590s). It is hard to evaluate the potential of this source: for example, from the analysis of the value of the ship and the freight paid on the merchandise, in relation with the damages suffered, we can estimate the risk percentage in Early Modern maritime trade.
At the same time, we can analyse and compare the first part of an average between them. This part was written in a narrative style and it can help us to understand which were the risks on board for the merchandises as well as the merchants, and how the captains and sailors tried to avoid them.
The documents regarding GA procedures (reports, calculations and attached documents – bills of lading, charter contracts, etc.) are extremely rich in quantitative data, especially when a legal conflict occurred. Plenty of material has survived since the late middle ages in archives across Europe. The analysis of these unexploited archival sources can provide a wealth of evidence both quantitative and qualitative to elucidate how maritime conflicts were resolved in a small urbanized state such as the Republic of Genoa, defined by Fernand Braudel as an early centre of capitalism. The specific institution in charge for this procedure was the Conservatori del Mare, to which were addressed all the declaration from the Republic and elsewhere across Mediterranean and Europe.
A systematic study on GA as an instrument to spread the risk and to analyse the different strategies adopted by merchants has been neglected by scholars for long time, with very few exceptions1.
The aim of my proposal is to present some preliminary findings based on GA reports preserved in the State Archive of Genoa (more than 3.000 documents for the 17th and 18th centuries, starting from the 1590s). I am working on a classification of these documents and they are going to be put in a structured database, which will include also data collected by the other scholars of the research team related to GA reports presented in other European ports. We will develop a comparative and systematic study covering several nodal points of maritime trade across Europe.
Genoa was a maritime republic and one of the main port cities in the Mediterranean. During the Early Modern age, it was a leading centre of international finance and a great hub of maritime trade. The importance of Genoa, of its port and its trade in these centuries were the reasons why many General Averages were declared here.
In the second part of the paper, I will take into account a couple of peculiar cases with legal or administrative issues. My aim will be to analyse and retrace the strategies adopted by the magistracy, the merchants and the captain during a GA resolution. In this way, I will be able to show how the rules were adapted and modified in order to “fit” the different situations.
Regardless of the effective role of the free port in the development of French commerce, what I would like to investigate in this paper is the “symbolic” role this economic measure represented for the local elites. I would like to show this by taking in consideration the debates around the free port during the revolutionary years and after, until the definitive abolition of this institution in 1821.
As is often said, there is everything on the Internet. What is not analyzed, however, is at what level of interpenetration a given matter is. In the case of History, for example, niche areas are clearly flourishing in which communities of enthusiasts discuss, inform and share their sources. But what is the state of history (and its communication) on mass sites, on those, in short, commonly called social media? The papers of this panel propose to analyze the current situation by taking several widely spread sites worldwide but also, and above all, to examine the possibilities that these sites offer to the public historians to try to communicate to an increasingly interactive and wide audience. We will analyze both sites specialized in audio video communication such as Youtube and Twitch, and more generalist platforms such as Facebook. Is it possible, for public history projects, to approach an audience that is always looking for serial but not serious entertainment, and with the most varied needs and habits, withou t abandoning its mission and without trivializing the topics they dealt with?
- Focus on customs policy and the presence of privileged store spaces.
- Focus on foreign merchants and invitation to move to the port, even by the creation of new spaces and the concession of permissions.
These two aspect constitute the two concepts of Entrepôt and Emporium. In the end, the application of these principles differed quite much from the edicts and from one port to another. I would like to show the role of foreign merchants in the free ports’ edicts of Genoa and Marseille in comparison with the well-known Livorno's free port with some examples of the limits of these policies.
Intervento individuale dal titolo: Essere straniero in un porto franco. Politiche di accoglienza e contraddizioni nel porto franco di Marsiglia
This work aims to investigate the evolution of general average and insurance regulations and procedures in Genoa, as well as the ways in which they intersected, with a view to fully understanding the mechanisms for managing maritime trade risks from the late Middle Ages to the early modern age.
La posizione di scalo essenziale sulle rotte per il nord Africa e per la costa palestinese, oltre allo statuto particolare, rese la città una sorta di “orient rapproché”, dov’era possibile incontrare mercanti, diplomatici, schiavi o anche semplici avventurieri provenienti dalle principali regioni europee, ma non solo. La presenza di musulmani, inizialmente rappresentata soprattutto dal bagno degli schiavi cittadino, fu costante e latente per tutto il XVII e XVIII secolo, con un progressivo incremento del numero di mercanti a fronte di quello dei rematori sulle galere regie. In questo lavoro indago sulle tracce lasciate dagli individui di fede musulmana e sulle condizioni della loro presenza e assimilazione nel tessuto urbano cittadino. Nonostante l’esiguità numerica, la presenza di stranieri di fede diversa e dei luoghi “tradizionali” loro associati, come chiese o cimiteri, contribuì a creare l’immagine di città portuale intesa come crocevia di popoli e culture studiata dalla recente storiografia.
All’interno del filone di studi sulla presenza musulmana nei territori europei in Età moderna, è essenziale la ricerca di luoghi di culto per la fede islamica, in parte riconosciuti e tutelati dalle autorità locali. I luoghi di inumazione, per via della volontà di tenerli separati dalla comunità cristiana anche tramite l’innalzamento di muri perimetrali, costituirono veri e propri rifugi per i fedeli. “Santuari” che permettevano allo straniero di praticare i propri riti anche lontano da casa, il tutto avveniva in continua contrattazione con le autorità locali.