Page 34 - Mellinato, Giulio, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2022. Complex Gateways. Labour and Urban History of Maritime Port Cities: The Northern Adriaticin a Comparative Perspective. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 34
plex Gateways
chants progressively shifted their economic interests towards the west-
ern Mediterranean. At the same time, they began getting involved in
both trade and financial businesses, establishing close relations with the
Spanish Crown and becoming its main financiers. In this new phase of its
history, Genoa regained the leading role it had previously lost, although
it had always been one of the wealthiest cities in Europe. The port, whose
facilities had been revamped in the late Middle Ages, became the cen-
tre of a wider economic system capable of efficiently handling increasing
traffic volumes. This work aims to examine the organization of the port
of Genoa, with particular focus on its workforce, identifying any relevant
rearrangements that had to be made over time in order to cope with con-
current traffic increase and changes.
From a methodological point of view, this investigation follows a
quite recent historiographical approach suggesting a new key for port
history interpretation: in other words, ports are no longer considered
as independent entities, exclusively influenced by government policies,
but rather as components of a commercial network (Caracausi and Jeggle
2014, 1–12), which greatly affects them with its peculiar features and den-
sity of links. According to this approach, ports can also be classified based
on their function as network hubs. It is thus possible to see how this func-
tion changes over time and what are the implications for their structure
and operational organisation. In this regard, the classification provid-
ed by Wim Blockmans, Mikhail Krom, and Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz in
the collective volume published in 2017 on European maritime trade be-
tween the late Middle Ages and the early modern age is key to putting the
Genoese case into context.
European ports are generally grouped into four categories, depend-
ing on the type of traffic that characterizes them. However, at the same
time, there might be some overlap: ports linking local/regional produc-
tion of certain goods and overseas outlet markets; ports of transit along
the main traffic routes; ports linking intercontinental merchant networks
and the European market; and large ports/commercial hubs, as centres
for importing and redistributing a wide variety of goods (Blockmans,
Krom, and Wubs-Mrozewicz 2017, 8–9). More specifically, the latter cat-
egory is made up of large port cities and their respective ports. Their pri-
mary function is to import and redistribute colonial products, food, and
raw materials designed to meet the needs of their population, local pro-
34
chants progressively shifted their economic interests towards the west-
ern Mediterranean. At the same time, they began getting involved in
both trade and financial businesses, establishing close relations with the
Spanish Crown and becoming its main financiers. In this new phase of its
history, Genoa regained the leading role it had previously lost, although
it had always been one of the wealthiest cities in Europe. The port, whose
facilities had been revamped in the late Middle Ages, became the cen-
tre of a wider economic system capable of efficiently handling increasing
traffic volumes. This work aims to examine the organization of the port
of Genoa, with particular focus on its workforce, identifying any relevant
rearrangements that had to be made over time in order to cope with con-
current traffic increase and changes.
From a methodological point of view, this investigation follows a
quite recent historiographical approach suggesting a new key for port
history interpretation: in other words, ports are no longer considered
as independent entities, exclusively influenced by government policies,
but rather as components of a commercial network (Caracausi and Jeggle
2014, 1–12), which greatly affects them with its peculiar features and den-
sity of links. According to this approach, ports can also be classified based
on their function as network hubs. It is thus possible to see how this func-
tion changes over time and what are the implications for their structure
and operational organisation. In this regard, the classification provid-
ed by Wim Blockmans, Mikhail Krom, and Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz in
the collective volume published in 2017 on European maritime trade be-
tween the late Middle Ages and the early modern age is key to putting the
Genoese case into context.
European ports are generally grouped into four categories, depend-
ing on the type of traffic that characterizes them. However, at the same
time, there might be some overlap: ports linking local/regional produc-
tion of certain goods and overseas outlet markets; ports of transit along
the main traffic routes; ports linking intercontinental merchant networks
and the European market; and large ports/commercial hubs, as centres
for importing and redistributing a wide variety of goods (Blockmans,
Krom, and Wubs-Mrozewicz 2017, 8–9). More specifically, the latter cat-
egory is made up of large port cities and their respective ports. Their pri-
mary function is to import and redistribute colonial products, food, and
raw materials designed to meet the needs of their population, local pro-
34
