Merchants, privateers and pirates

Aside from comprehensive research in the archives of the Republic of Montenegro which still needs to be completed, sources from other places make it possible to shed some light on the commercial maritime activity of people from the Montenegrin littoral (Perast, Kotor, Ulcinj, Budva, Paštrovići). On the basis of customs permits from Šibenik, Split, and Ancona, in the period from the first half of the 15th to the end of the 16th century, we can see the active involvement of people from the Montenegrin littoral in the current of maritime commercial traffic. They are present as carriers in the service of other traders or as independent entrepreneurs. In this fashion they are involved in the international trade of goods (ranging from crisp breads from Ancona to Ottoman handiworks sold for Armenians or Jews) from the East (Ottoman Empire) to the West (primarily the western coast of Italy).
Further, examining their activity in Zadar and Dubrovnik, in this case on the basis of notary records and official correspondence of the Venetian administration (from as early as the 14th century), this article attempts to clarify the contribution made by these individuals to commercial import and export in the Adriatic, alongside a brief examination of their assistance in pirate activity.

El siguiente trabajo pretende analizar de manera breve la presencia de corsarios y piratas en la isla de La Española entre los mediados del siglo XVI y los mediados del XVII, realizando una breve visión de sus actores, características y consecuencias para establecer la relación entre el desarrollo corso-pirático y la evolución de algunos aspectos de la Isla en ese tiempo. // The aim of this study is to analyze briefly the presence of piracy in Hispaniola between mid-sixteenth and mid-seventeenth centuries, giving a brief insight about actors, characteristics and consequences so as to establish a relation between the piracy’s development and the evolution of some aspects about the Island in this period.

The rise and decline of Atlantic piracy has been used to gauge the level of commercial, administrative, naval, and diplomatic control that Britain exercised in the Atlantic. Indeed, historians have suggested that by 1730, Britain had eradicated piracy in the region. These studies credit a governmental campaign of law enforcement and moral persuasion for a revolutionary shift in public attitudes against piracy. A close examination, however, reveals that piracy flourished in Atlantic waters well into the nineteenth century, and that Britain’s command of the region was not nearly as thorough as some have suggested. Old practices and beliefs regarding piracy’s legality and propriety persisted in the face of imperial attempts to effect change—Britons continued to regard “armed commerce” as wholly conventional and legitimate. Piracy was eventually ushered out of the Atlantic indirectly and inadvertently, not through forceful confrontation at sea and port, but in response to the reduced profitability of contraband.
  Britain’s ineffective anti-piracy campaign reveals the limits of British power at sea, but also on land, vis-à-vis its constituents. Violence and property losses at sea were useful to authorities in their efforts to articulate differences between the illegitimate violence of pirates and smugglers, and legitimate force wielded by the government. And yet, the government’s attempts to extend its jurisdiction beyond coastal waters, monopolize violence, and sanction some forms of maritime commerce while delegitimizing others, were consistently resisted, ignored, and thwarted by large swaths of British society on both sides of the ocean. British subjects retained an archaic and localist conception of society, state, and law, and resisted legal and bureaucratic structures put in place by landed governments to facilitate state building. 

  The chronological discrepancy regarding the passing of piracy and the resultant misconception regarding Britain’s control of the Atlantic are products of historians’ modernist definition of piracy. This anachronistic understanding of piracy obscures the continued activity of pirates in the Atlantic during the “long eighteenth century” and gives credence to the presumptions of eighteenth-century governments to monopolize the use of force at sea.

y B. Joel, “Death Be Not Proud: A Denouement of How one Man and his Death Made One Small Island Become More Detrimental to England Than All the Forces of her Enemies, A Story of Isaac Van Dam of Statia". Gunpowder and the American Revolution

This work analyses the public perception of the role of privateers and their transition to pirates and examines both negative and positive outcomes in various areas like diplomacy, international trade, legal, racial and gender issues. The entire topic is examined through various cases of pirates including Bartholomew Roberts, Sir Henry Morgan, Thomas Tew, William Kid, Jack Rackham, Stede Bonnet, Edward Teach, Samuel Bellamy, Mary Read, Anne Bony or Henry Avery as well as historical records including letters, trials and pamphlets. Further, this essay discusses an interesting development of piracy from state-funded expeditions into utterly illegal activity driven by various reasons. Particularly the transition between legal, semi-legal and illicit separates England and Great Britain (from 1707 onwards) from other colonial powers such as France, Spain or Dutch. Despite the fact that they all issued privateering licenses and therefore they had to face similar problems connected to privateering, the outburst of piracy in the case of England was so dangerous that England (Great Britain) during the late 17th and early 18th century was called a “nation of pirates”. Hence, this work analyses both legal and practical actions against pirates in British colonies and their effectiveness after 1715. The last part of this essay is dedicated to piracy regarding an alternative way of life for disadvantaged social groups in the 17th and 18th century and contemporary negative or positive portrayal of piracy. The role of liberated “Negroe” and “Mullato” slaves is also examined throu

靖海孤忠：浙江提督李長庚的海上生涯

李長庚是乾隆末期至嘉慶年間極為活躍的水師將領，他官至浙江提督，並曾總統閩浙水師，長期承擔追剿海盜的任務，是嘉慶年間實際掌握大清絕大多數水師戰力的海防指揮官。他奔襲於浙江、福建沿海，穿梭於臺灣海峽兩岸，甚至追剿海盜到廣東，最後出師未捷，喪命於海盜狙擊手，其個人生涯可謂嘉慶朝抗擊海盜水師將領的代表。然而，關於他的早年活動和官場上的挫折，在各種傳記資料中多有過於簡略和為尊者諱的情形。此外，他出任浙江提督之後的史料雖然眾多，但在晚近的海洋史研究當中，海盜研究反而成為主體，對於抗擊海盜的水師將領，則較少受到關注。
本文擬利用國立故宮博物院所藏宮中檔、軍機處奏摺錄副、上諭檔，中央研究院歷史語言研究所藏《明清內閣大庫檔》等官方檔案史料，以及私家著述：阮亨《瀛舟筆談》，焦循〈神風蕩寇記〉、〈神風蕩寇後記〉，和阮元《揅經室集》，及新近出版之《李忠毅公遺詩》等史料，探究李長庚生平及其海上生涯，並解析其君臣關係和官場際遇，盼能對嘉慶時期的海防問題稍做補白。
關鍵詞：李長庚　清仁宗　蔡牽　阮元　海洋史

The Man who Brought Peace to the Seas:
On the Naval Career of Li Chang-geng,
the Military Commander of Zhejiang Province

Zhou Wei-qiang

Abstract
LI Chang-geng was a Chinese naval officer at the turn of the 19th century who has seen many battles in his life.He was the Military Commander of Zhejiang Province at the time of his death.He once commanded Zhejiang and Fujian's fleets and has been in charge of hunting down the pirates for a long time.During the Jiaqing Reign, he was the Qing Navy's most powerful commander taken charge of coastal defense.He battled in the coastal waters of Zhejiang and Fujian Provinces.His fleets were seen across the Taiwan Strait.He chased down pirates to as far as Guangdong province.Finally, in a lost sea battle, he was shot and killed by a pirate shooter.We may see him as the man behind Jiaqing Reign's war against pirates.However, his earlier life and his eventful career as an officer were often neglected or abbreviated by authors of his biography due to some kind of respect.Even though the historical records regarding his post-Naval Commander days were abundant, today's historical studies placed too much attention on the pirates.They failed to study the naval officers who fought them even though they deserved much more attention.
This paper examines LI Chang-geng's life and his naval career using multiple official and civilian accounts.The official accounts include the National Palace Museum's Memorials of Jiaqing's Court（宮中檔）, Grand Council Memorial Copies （軍機處奏摺錄副）, Grand Council's Draft of Imperial Commands（上諭檔） and also the Archives of the Grand Secretariat（明清內閣大庫檔）of the Academia Sinica.The civilian authored accounts include YingzhouBitan（瀛舟筆談）by RUAN Heng（阮亨）, ShengfengDangkoJi（神風蕩寇記）, ShengfengDangkoHouji（神風蕩寇後記） by JIAO Xun（焦循）, YanjinshiJi（揅經室集）by RUAN Yuan（阮元）and recently published Li Zhongyi Gong Yishi（李忠毅公遺詩，The Unpublished Poetry of LI Chang-geng）. His career as an officer and his relationship with the emperor are also examined.It is hoped that this paper can fill-up some gaps of the neglected field of Jiaqing Reign's naval defense.

Keywords: LI Chang-gang, Emperor Jiaqing, CAI Qian. RUAN Yuan, maritime history

When in 1621 was established the Dutch West India Company, the United Provinces of the Netherlands were ready to enter in the Spanish mare clausum in the New World. Due to their traditional liberal approach to religious freedom, the Dutch colonial possessions in America were characterized by a wide fusion of cultures. While in the former Spanish colonies remains the legacy of Catholicism and Spanish language, the Dutch territories are characterized by its pidginized linguas francas: Papiamentu from the Leeward Antilles, or Shranan from Surinam.
This contribution is based on the historical reasons of the contemporary socio-cultural consequences of the Dutch presence in the Caribbean and on the Wild Coast in the 17th
century, and it focuses particularly on the topic of language and religious distribution, together with the politological aspects of decolonization.

Key words: United Provinces of the Netherlands, privateer, WIC, Shranan, Papiamentu, Leeward Antilles, Surinam, Reformed Church

‘This attractively-presented book is a careful and scholarly account of Rye which will prove to be the authoritative history of the town for the foreseeable future’. Professor Caroline Barron, Royal Holloway, University of London.
Visitors to Rye immediately notice its striking hilltop site, the town’s main entrance, the Land Gate, and fishing boats on the river and quayside. There are wonderful views of Romney Marsh and the English Channel. Exploring Rye’s steep cobbled streets, visitors find St Mary’s parish church surrounded by other historic buildings, and the ‘castle’, the Ypres tower. There is an ancient grammar school, a stone chapel on Conduit Hill, a wealth of inns, medieval and Tudor timber-framed dwellings and other houses with brick facades. Rye was an Ancient Town which formed part of the important Cinque Ports confederation in the Middle Ages, yet has remained a small town ‘almost suspended in time’. How did this happen?
This new illustrated history traces Rye’s origins from the Norman Conquest until beyond its period of great prosperity under the Tudor monarchs. Many inhabitants were fishermen or small-scale merchants and owned vessels which they supplied for the king’s ship-service, transporting members of the royal family across the Channel or, in wartime, carrying horses and provisions for soldiers. In times of truce Rye’s mariners turned to piracy and wrecking, disrupting the cross-channel trade on which the town’s economy also depended.
During the Hundred Years’ War the townsfolk reinforced the defences and, in response to the huge mortality of the Black Death, they endowed an Augustinian Friary so that the brothers would pray for their health and souls. But then Rye entered a period of economic stagnation which saw the disappearance of many trades and crafts which had supported the residents and supplied mariners calling at the port.
Rye’s revival came towards the end of the fifteenth century after the harbours of nearby ports such as New Romney and Winchelsea had been damaged by storms and silting. New houses, shops, fishermen’s lofts and garrets were built, public buildings were erected on the quayside and a piped water supply replaced the outlying medieval springs. A royal official, Sir Richard Guldeford, sailed from Rye on his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1506, and until the Reformation the townsfolk beautified the church and supported its chantries. Rye became a prosperous, if crowded, town and its Protestant sympathies and close links to the Continent ensured the arrival of many Huguenot refugees. For over a century Rye continued as the major port in south-east England but as its own harbour silted it was finally eclipsed by Dover in the seventeenth century.

Under den store nordiske krig, 1709-1720, foregikk det en livlig kaperkrig i Norden mellom Danmark-Norge og Sverige. Denne artikkelen beskriver de norske kaperne og deres del av konflikten. Det er et tema som i liten grad er belyst av norske historikere. Artikkelen ser på hva som var myndighetenes mål med å åpne opp for kapere, lovverket, hvem det var som finansierte og bemannet de norske kaperskipene, hvordan virksomheten var organisert og hvordan den i praksis foregikk.

Videre følges de norske kapernes opp- og nedturer gjennom krigen og de mange problemene de møtte. Det var ikke mange kaperskip det er snakk om, i løpet av krigen ble det rustet ut 12 skip. De tok over 100 svenske og nøytrale skip som priser. Men som følge av juridiske og diplomatiske forviklinger måtte svært mange av disse leveres tilbake. Enkelte av rederne tjente penger, men ikke store summer og de fleste rederiene viste seg å være rene underskuddsforetak. For å motvirke dette satte kaperrederne i gang utstrakt lobbyvirksomhet i København for å skaffe seg bedre vilkår, med vekslende hell. Det hele sammenlignes med aktiviteten hos fienden i det svenske kaperredet Göteborg. 

Artikkelen forsøker også å svare på spørsmålet om hvor stor innvirkning på krigen kaperiet egentlig hadde. I tillegg trekkes det frem flere av aktørene; kaperkapteiner, redere og beslutningstagere, i tillegg til dramatiske episoder fra sjø og havner.

La course française en Méditerranée au XVIIe siècle, de la décennie 1630 à 1697 par Roberto Barazzutti. Ceci est un brouillon de l'article en cour d'écriture pour une publication prochaine. Il est mis sur le site academia.edu sans l'intégralité des références archivistiques et bibliographiques, ni toutes les corrections, à des fins d'avoir les avis et conseils des autres membres et personnes qui me suivent. Il ne doit pas être copier ni recopier. Merci d'avance pour votre aide et le respect de cette règle. This is a rough draft of the article in writing for an upcoming publication. It is put on the site acadamia.edu without full archival and bibliographic references, or any corrections, for the purpose of having the opinions and advice of other members and people who follow me. It must not be copied. Thank you in advance for your help and respect for this rule.

An entry by Thomas Benjamin and Dennis Hidalgo. "Buccaneers." Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450. Ed. Thomas Benjamin. Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 165-168.Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Commerce raiders called privateers, pirates, buccaneers, and other such names roamed the Caribbean Sea, as well as the Atlantic and Indian oceans, in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries as the detritus of the first Western colonies. During the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries, French, English, and Dutch raiders of Spanish and Portuguese shipping and ports generally acted under the authorization of their governments. The English Crown, for example, granted merchants and captains "letters of marque and reprisal," which authorized attacks on Spanish shipping and ports. This legal document required that the privateer captains deliver to an admiralty court their captured ships, whereupon everyone would legally carve up a share of the spoils.

"The article revisits the “Santa Catarina incident”, the famous episode of the first Portuguese ship captured by the Dutch in Asian waters, placing it within the broader context of Luso-Dutch rivalry in the Malay world, particularly the Straits of Singapore and Malacca. Through a careful analysis of European sources, the author assesses the broader consequences of this event and the ensuing international implications. After 1603, the VOC directors and the regents of the Dutch Republic were alerted to how profitable the policy of freebooting and despoiling the enemy could be, while the Portuguese authorities of the Estado da Índia became aware of their vulnerability in the face of geographical constraints. There is also a discussion of the legal defence of the Dutch interests as presented by Hugo Grotius, the Dutch jurist who has frequently been upheld as the “father of modern international law”. What becomes very transparent in the course of the present account is how important the Macao merchants really were to the Estado da Índia, how far their networks of trade spanned deep into Southeast Asia, and how, despite suffering a number of severe setbacks as a result of VOC freebooting activities, they managed to recuperate from these blows with amazing agility and perseverance.

You can download this paper from
http://www.icm.gov.mo/RC/TextPE.asp?No=11&ID=555"

This dissertation examines the relationship between the expansion of the English colony of Jamaica and the rapid growth of maritime piracy in the second half of the seventeenth century. The work re-examines the way in which the growing political, economic and strategic importance of Jamaica as the Crown Colony had corresponded with pirate raids. It extends the area of this subject by the implementation of the complex framework of relations between influential members involved in Jamaican colonial administration and prominent individuals of pirate crews. Hence, one of the central claims of this research is that pirates in seventeenth century functioned as the integral element of British imperial endeavours. Moreover, this study argues that seventeenth-century pirates played a significant role in connecting Britain's empires in the Americas and India by forcing London authorities to impose its central policy on colonies and abandon the concept of decentralised imperial state.
While there is wide agreement that “the pirate economy” of Jamaica was replaced by the business of plantation, there is less consensus over whether or not the dominance of plantocracy was achieved through legal and ethical means. Extensive research of primary sources has shown that the hegemony of planter's class was rather the outcome of a cunning strategy of land acquisitions accomplished by privileged Assembly representatives such as Thomas Lynch, Peter Beckford or William Beeston. This research drawing on deep analysis of archival sources argues that generations of buccaneers were intentionally driven out of Jamaica by the clique of local representatives of planter’s class led by Thomas Lynch. Thus, this work seeks to clarify the nature of the transformation of Jamaican society by the end of seventeenth century, which should not be perceived as smooth and natural development.
Rather, it should be understood in terms of organised and forced replacement of one class of people with a different class of people, which was more fitting for the whole colonial project. Nevertheless, this research based on archival sources, published manuscripts and judicious use of contemporary sources claims that the abandonment of piratical activities was ill-timed and exposed The British West Indies to significant defensive risks.
The dissertation is comprised of five chapters covering five decades of Jamaica's colonial development with an emphasis on three distinct generations yet equally successful piratical societies enjoying endorsement, support, sponsorship or protection by Jamaican colonists. Chapter one looks at the aftermath of the failed Western Design in the Caribbean, expeditions led by Christopher Myngs and the first wave of buccaneers settling down in Port Royal. The second chapter is dedicated to the era of Henry Morgan and his infamous attacks on Spanish colonies. Further, the chapter investigates the establishment of the semi-legal web of interconnected communities of pirates, smugglers, wreckers and “baymen”. Chapter three considers the nature of the second wave of buccaneering framed by voyages of William Dampier, Bartholomew Sharp and John Coxon. Also, this part comments on the status of indentured servants and the turbulent changes in the composition of Jamaican society. The period of two competing Jamaican political factions of planters and merchants is discussed in the chapter four. Additionally, this section deals with the consequences of the Glorious Revolution (1688) for Jamaica, and it clarifies the link between Tories, Whigs and pirates. The key factors of Jamaica's influence behind the rise of the Red Round piracy are outlined in chapter five It also details the clash of different colonial interests epitomised by numerous conflicts between colonial authorities and the Royal Navy and discusses the impacts of the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). The last section takes the reader to the brink of the War of the Spanish Succession and re-examines the importance of legal changes emphasised by The
Piracy Act passed by the Parliament of England in 1698. Each chapter provides the reader important contextual information about relevant political, cultural, social, and military events like for instance the Anglo-Dutch Wars or the Nine Years' War.

The seventeenth century Mediterranean was dominated by the business of crusade. Fleets proved disastrously expensive, and few states could sustain the cost of war. Galleys may have been much more effective than the old paradigm holds, and fortresses often proved hugely ineffective. Fleets operated under the paradox that they were both a projection of the ruler’s pact with the Almighty and a business opportunity. The Mediterranean was not abandoned in the 'Seicento', although the fighting revealed the paradox that in order to campaign against the enemy it was necessary to trade with him.
Key Words: Business of war, crusade, galleys, gazi, seventeenth century Mediterranean
Nel corso del XVII secolo, il Mediterraneo fu dominato dal business della crociata. Le flotte si rivelarono enormemente dispendiose e pochi stati po- tevano sostenere il costo della guerra. Le galere risultarono ben più efficaci di quanto dicano i luoghi comuni storiografici, mentre le fortezze sovente si dimostrarono del tutto inutili. Paradossalmente, le flotte erano al contempo la proiezione del patto stretto dai governanti con l’Onnipotente e un’occa- sione per fare affari. Il Mediterraneo non fu affatto abbandonato nel Sei- cento, sebbene dal conflitto emerga il paradosso che, per poter combattere il nemico, era necessario commerciare con esso.
Key words: Business della guerra, crociata, galee, gazi, Mediterraneo seicentesco

The essay focuses on mobility and identity in the Medieval Mediterranean and offers a close reading of cases of women who travel as slaves, sold and bought as merchandise and some who dress as men in order to travel safe through the sea and on the land, within a political and economical study of some text of the romance tradition such as the Old-French poems of Aucassin and Nicolette, Floire and Blancheflor, Boccaccio’s Decameron and De mulieribus and the Italian Buovo D’Antona. Starting from the case of the Christian Blancheflor who arrives in the Saracen Egypt when is sold to merchants as merchandise by Floire’s father, the essay studies in particular the disguises in male clothes as a form of gender and identity trespassing that goes along with the geographical crossings. The essay focuses at length on Nicolette and Drusiana’s cases for the gender, religious and narratological implications that their trespassing imply: the Saracen Nicolette is kindapped in the Muslim city of Cartagena in Spain and sold to a Christian family in France and kidnapped again returns to her native city, while the Christian Armenian Drusiana chose to travel in non-Christian and foreign lands. Both in the attempt to find their lovers from whom they had been separated, escape their world and cross foreign spaces by means of a coloring herb as black menestrels, and both find their lovers by singing their stories thanks to their fake identity.

Αφορμή για τη συγγραφή του παρόντος άρθρου αποτέλεσε η ανασκαφική έρευνα στο Μεγανήσι, όπου κατά την περίοδο 2011-2014 ερευνήθηκαν 17 τύμβοι που, όπως κατέδειξαν τα λιγοστά, αλλά σπουδαία ευρήματα που διέφυγαν τη σύληση, χρονολογούμενα, κατά κύριο λόγο, στο τέλος της Μυκηναϊκής εποχής, ανήκαν σε πολεμιστές και μπορούν να συσχετισθούν με τους περίφημους «φιλήρετμους» και «ληίστορες» Ταφίους που αναφέρονται στα Έπη.

La historiografía ha dedicado numerosos estudios al corso mediterráneo, centrando sus esfuerzos en relatar las acciones de la armada otomana y de los grandes arráeces, durante la guerra entre la Monarquía hispánica y la Sublime Puerta. Sin embargo, apenas han dedicado esfuerzos a valorar la amenaza y su impacto sobre la navegación y las costas españolas. El caso de Baleares es indicativo de esta problemática. La sistematización de los datos aportados por las diferentes investigaciones pone en duda la imagen de unas costas constantemente asediadas por los corsarios. En su lugar, señala la necesidad de diferenciar las pequeñas agresiones de los grandes y puntuales ataques, que crearon una evidente preocupación entre la sociedad insular. También apunta a la necesidad de investigaciones pormenorizadas, que estudien la actividad corsaria con mayor profundidad y valoren la amenaza en su justa medida.

Historiography has dedicated several studies to Mediterranean privateering, focusing its efforts in enumerating the attacks of the Ottoman Navy and the great corsairs, during the war between the Spanish Monarchy and the Sublime Porte. However, very few attempts have been made to evaluate the threat and the impact on the Spanish navigation and coasts. The particular case of Balearic Islands evinces the problematic since the systematization of data generated by these studies does not show a coast constantly besieged by corsairs. Although it points the need to distinguish between smaller actions and specific bigger attacks, which created an obvious concern among the insular society. Furthermore, new and detailed researches will allow us to fix these problems and to evaluate the corsair activity in its right measure.

Nel Quattrocento l’Inghilterra dei Plantageneti era uno tra i paesi europei più xenofobi dell’epoca; nonostante ciò, per tutto
il secolo, i mercanti italiani continuarono tenacemente a praticare la loro attività anche in un contesto così difficile. Tra
questi, la presenza più forte era quella dei Genovesi, le cui carracks, come le fonti d’Oltremanica definivano le loro navi di
notevoli dimensioni, si avventuravano in acque oceaniche fino alle coste inglesi a partire dal XIII secolo. Nella prima metà
del XV secolo, però, il sentimento xenofobo, nutrito da un sempre più crescente nazionalismo, dilagò fra la classe mercantile
londinese, rendendo l’attività commerciale dei Genovesi ancora più difficile. L’akmè di questo clima di tensione e
competizione si ebbe dal 1457, anno in cui Robert Sturmy, mercante di Bristol, tentò, con una spedizione di due navi dirette
in Oriente, di spezzare il monopolio che gli Italiani avevano sul commercio inglese col bacino orientale del mar Mediterraneo;
le navi di Sturmy furono assaltate e catturate da pirati all’epoca ritenuti legati alla Superba e questo episodio alimentò la
campagna anti-genovese che già l’atteggiamento xenofobo di cui sopra aveva contribuito a diffondere nel paese di Enrico VI.
La crisi che si aprì nel 1458 e si trascinò per circa 8 anni segnò una nuova fase dei rapporti diplomatici e commerciali
anglo-genovesi. Come si evolsero questi ultimi in tali difficili contingenze e quali furono le risposte della Superba alla politica
anti-italiana messa in atto dalla corona britannica? Come cambiò la presenza genovese sulla piazza inglese, in riferimento
soprattutto a Londra, Southampton e Sandwich, i tre principali centri frequentati dagli Italiani? Scopo di questo lavoro è
quello di cercare di dare risposte a queste domande, che ancora oggi costituiscono un problema storiografico che limita la
nostra conoscenza della storia tardomedievale della Superba.

dans Tribunali di mercanti e giustizia mercantile nel tardo medioevo (Atti della giornata di studi, Firenze, Accademia di Scienze e Lettere la Colombaria, 26 febbraio 2016), MACCIONI E. et TOGNETTI S. dir., Florence, Olschki, 2016, p. 51-81.

This  article  deals  with  legitimizations  of  expansion  of  the  Anglo-British  Empire against the monarchy of  Spain during the last quarter of the XVII century  and the first of the XVIII century, and how they shaped British identity and a certain conceptions of the  Spanish.  In  the first  section  we  explain  the  arguments  through  subjects  who  used them, today categorized as pirates, philosophers and novelists, noticing their links to the highest institution of the Scientific Revolution: the Royal Society. In the second part we contextualize  the  claims  of  these  authors  in  three  Spanish-British  discussions  in  which they  participated,  and  their  relationships  with  each  other.  We  conclude  that  while  the arguments respond less to original exceptionalities than to the contexts of these debates, they forged identities and material realities derived from them

This article focuses on British maritime law to discuss the challenge of transferring Admiralty law to Britain’s Atlantic colonies, considered through the lens pirate trials and executions. Colonial governors in North America and the West Indies tolerated piracy during the seventeenth century to obtain goods barred from the restrictions imposed by the Navigation Acts. These deals were largely ignored, but the increasing piratical insults against the Crown and pressure from foreign competitors, such as Spain, forced British officials to crack down on piracy. Unfortunately, years of tolerating pirates had allowed these criminals to become too numerous for British officials to transport captured pirates back to England for trial and executions. As a result, by 1700 they had to establish their maritime legal ruling body, the Admiralty Court, throughout the American colonies under the jurisdiction of local governors. However, complex geographical challenges in the Caribbean and religiously influenced social laws in North America forced colonial governors to alter the English system to fit their needs and create autonomous legal networks. This article argues that the establishment and maintenance of British Admiralty law in the Atlantic colonies led to the development of early American ideas of autonomy.