Trade, traders, and institutions in late medieval Venice (1291-1421)

Thesis

Two ideas: that rulers dictated commercial policies, and that long-distance trade was the main dimension of medieval trade, will be tested - and challenged – in this thesis, using late- medieval Venice as a litmus test. Venice did not prosper solely because of the sea, but also due to the integration of the city within the trade networks of the Italian and European mainland. Equally, regional and inter-regional trade mattered as much as international exchanges in Syria or Egypt. Institutions mattered in Venice, but not just in the sense of decision-makers like the Senato or the Maggior Consiglio, but also in the broader sense of kinship ties and partnerships.

To subject the relationship between trade, traders, and institutions/organisations to a fresh analysis, I have chosen, as a case study, Venice during ‘the long fourteenth century’, the period between the fall of Acre (1291) and the reconquest of Dalmatia (1420). It is a broad timespan that reflects the changing fortunes of the city, and its passage through the fourteenth century, both before and after the plague. The Trecento was a century that forced Venice to confront several challenges, leading Venetians to seek new opportunities in the western Mediterranean, diversify their shipping routes, and increase the transport of commodities in bulk to meet the demand of the burgeoning proto-industries such as glassmaking, textiles, and soap-making.

I will reflect on the integration of multiple trade circuits. I will propose that Venetian shipping in the fourteenth century was tripartite: comprising longships, or galleys, for international trade; round ships, such as cogs, for inter-regional trade; and flat-bottomed ships, serving local routes. Another important dimension to the overall argument developed in this thesis is the notion that a plethora of operators partook in Venetian trade, not just the upper echelons of the patriciate, and that non-Venetians equally played a significant role within the Venetian economy. As for organisations and institutions, I will argue that while Venice regulated commerce, it did not dictate it. State intervention coexisted with the relative autonomy of individual merchants and commercial interest groups.

Authors: Carotenuto, N

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-aexmyrzrm
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: mediterranean; merchants; medieval; trade
• Subjects: History; Naval history; Economic history--Medieval, 500-1500