The Economic Structure of Maritime Trade Calling at the Port of Genoa Through the Analysis of General Average Data (Sixteenth-Seventeenth Centuries)

Abstract

This essay will discuss the preliminary results emerging from data extrapolated from General Average (GA) procedures in Genoa, between the last decade of the sixteenth century and the 1640s. The wealth of data provided by GA procedures compensates for some of the gaps in quantitative data which have held back research on the local maritime economy. Methodologically, this essay further develops the insights of Giuseppe Felloni’s work on GA’s potential for economic analysis. The rich documentation produced during GA procedures, from the original report (testimoniale) to the final apportioning of costs (calculus), provides details for typology of vessel, provenance, route, flag and cargo. This data sheds new light on Mediterranean maritime trade during a fundamental period of structural change, characterised by the emergence of new protagonists and the creation of new equilibria.