Whatever the cost: Grain trade and the Genoese dominating minority in Sicily and Tabarka (16^th-18^th centuries)

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• Genoese merchants
• dominating minority
• general average (GA)
• Sicily
• Tabarka
• Lomellini

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Antonio Iodice is a Ph.D. Student in History at the University of Exeter and in Economics at the University of Genoa (double degree). He is the author of General Average in Genoa: between rules and customs. In Addobbati, A., Fusaro, M., Piccinno, L. (Eds.), Sharing Risk: General Average and European Maritime Business (VI-XVIII Centuries), Palgrave, 2021 (forthcoming).Luisa Piccinno is Associate Professor of Economic History at the University of Genoa. She is the author of The economic structure of maritime trade calling at the port of Genoa through the analysis of general average data (XVI-XVII Centuries). In Addobbati, A., Fusaro, M., Piccinno, L. (Eds.) Sharing Risk: General Average and European Maritime Business (VI-XVIII Centuries), Palgrave, 2021 (forthcoming).

Notes

1 Other scholars believe that even ‘violence’ is a key element in the making of a diaspora. See Luconi (2011, pp. 150–151).

2 On the Genoese diaspora, see also Lo Basso (2015), Dauverd (2006), and Doria (1995).

3 The Seventeenth century was, however, a century of drop in exports, see Morreale, Capitalismo in Sicilia, 80–83, 207–216, Appendix I, ‘Esportazioni annuali extra e infra regno 1401-1700’.

4 Carrino and Salvemini (2006). On the economic role played by the islands in maritime trade, see Barciela Lopez et al. (2007). On grain routes from North Africa in the Sixteenth century and the role played by the Genoese see Masi (2014, pp. 275–276).

5 Camillo Pallavicini, the ‘king of the grain trade’, is a case in point for the Genoese minority in Sicily in the 17^th century. For many years he lived in Palermo and was Consul of the Republic of Genoa, see Lo Basso (2007, p. 83).

6 O. Cancila was one of the first scholars that defined Sicily as a colonial economy because of its dependence on foreign capitals (Cancila, 1980), while local nobleman preferred to invest in state income (Romeo, 1978). Epstein (1992), challenged this perspective. See also Petralia (1994).

7 On the different products subject to imports and exports from Sicily, see Ligresti (2006, p. 313).

8 Ligresti (2006, p. 304). See also Basile (2007, pp. 1–130, I-XLVII) and Calabrese (2018).

9 The Groppo, for example, who settled in Palermo since the 16^th century, obtained the land of Mezzoiuso and the title of Barons in 1613. The Oneto became Barons of San Bartolomeo in the 16^th century. Visconte Cigala, a Genoese resident of Messina, in 1626 redeemed the town of Castrofilippo from a Genoese commercial company (societas) who had bought it from Madrid, and then resold it together with the ducal title. See Laudani (1996, p. 55).

10 In Palermo, since the Normans time, there was a Genoese loggia, plus the churches of Saint Luke and Saint George. Ligresti (2006, p. 315).

11 Laudani (1996, p. 120). On the division between Old and New Nobles in Genoa, see Kirk (2005, pp. 22–28).

12 Ligresti (2006, p. 316, 334). Palermo had 114,131 inhabitants in 1591 and 104,983 in 1606. Macrì (2010, p. 94).

13 On the definition of ports scattered along the coasts of southern Italy, see Carrino and Salvemini (2006).

14 Giuffrida (1999, p. 21). According to Giuffrida’s calculations, the three export taxes, i.e. tratta ordinaria, nuovo importo and ragione dei minuti, accounted for around 51% of a merchant’s profit margins in 1530.

15 Sciuti Russi (1983, pp. 49–50). He was Maestro Portolano in 1542, 1558-1559, 1563-1564, 1567-1568 and 1570-1571, see Soprintendenza Archivistica della Sicilia, Archivio di Stato di Palermo (ASP), L’archivio del Maestro Portulano del Regno di Sicilia, 8.

16 Ligresti (2006, p. 337). Emanuele Gaetani (1759, pp. 62, 68). He was Maestro Portolano in 1582-1583, 1584-1585, 1591-1592 and 1595-1596, see ASP, L’archivio del Maestro Portulano del Regno di Sicilia, 8.

17 He was Maestro Portolano in 1601-1602, 1602-1603 and 1607-1607, see ASP, L’archivio del Maestro Portulano del Regno di Sicilia, 8.

18 The survey on guarantors was conducted by Federico Martino on the first five books of the series of fideiussori per le esportazioni, see ASP, L’archivio del Maestro Portulano del Regno di Sicilia, 5.

19 URL: http://humanities-research.exeter.ac.uk/avetransrisk.

20 Archivio di Stato di Genova (ASG), Notai Giudiziari 636, 23/08/1600.

21 On the silk industry, see Guenzi et al. (1998).

22 The price paid for wheat of the old harvest was generally lower compared to the average price of the current harvest. ASG, Notai Giudiziari 637, 04/09/1601.

23 1 mina equalled 90.985 kg. The Genoese lira was the accounting currency used in Genoa. It was equal to 8,176 grams of silver between 1590 and 1629, and it went down to 4,841 grams in 1703. See Felloni and Pesce (1975, p. 210).

24 In 1591, for example, prices peaked in Genoa and Catania. See Felloni (1999c, p. 1239).

25 For a specific analysis on the Sicilian grain market in the eighteenth century, see Fazio (1993).

26 The businesses of the Cavanna family will be the subject of forthcoming research.

27 In only one voyage, there was also a L. Cavanna from Palermo, see ASG, NG 637, 15/05/1601.

28 ASG, Notai Giudiziari 637, 25/10/1601.

29 On the French presence in Capo Negro and in the Bastion and on their relations with the Genoese in Tabarka, see Piccinno (2008, pp. 96–106).

30 Ferrante Gonzaga, Viceroy of Sicily, signed the first asiento in Messina on the 22^nd of September 1542 through the broker Francesco Grimaldi, with Francesco Lomellini and brothers, but it never came into effect. It was replaced by a new agreement signed the following year. On the contracts finalized from 1543 to 1695, see Piccinno (2008, pp. 56–83) and Gourdin (2008, p. 158).

31 Battilana (1833). On the Genoese from Pegli see Bruna (1899, pp. 8–9).

32 «At the beginning of the 17th century, the caravan that periodically linked Tabarka to Tunis had become a commercial event in the North of Tunisia », in Boubaker (1992, p. 287).

33 Philip II in Madrid created it in 1562 to manage Spanish possessions in Italy (the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia), see Di Blasi (1842, pp. XXXIII–XXXVIII).

34 Archives Nationale de Paris (ANP), Marine, B/7/471, Extrait des papiers et memoires concernant l’Isle de Tabarca …, cc. 660–662.

35 Biblioteca Civica Berio di Genova (BGG), Sezione Conservazione, ms. XV 3 3, Registro delle lettere scritte à Genova d’Aurelio Spinola.

36 Archivio Durazzo Giustiniani Genova (ADGG), reg. 938, Lettere di Tabarca, 1719–1725.

37 Between 1719 and 1729, the Lomellini family partially left the firm. They subcontracted it to a new company where only Agostino Maria Lomellini had a share. The other members were Giacomo Filippo Durazzo, Costantino Balbi, Francesco Maria Balbi and Giovanni Battista Cambiaso, see Piccinno (2008, pp. 109–256).

38 BBG, Sezione Conservazione, ms. XV 3 3, Registro delle lettere scritte à Genova d’Aurelio Spinola, c. 49, 30/05/1684. In some cases, the Governor bartered wheat with the masters of foreign ships calling at Tabarka with other goods, BBG, Sezione Conservazione, ms. XV 3 3, Registro delle lettere scritte à Genova d’Aurelio Spinola, c. 164, 21/04/1686.

39 As already mentioned, the duty on imported grain was 2 Genoese lire for mina.

40 At the beginning of the 18^th century, insurance premium ranged between 15,000 and 35,000 Genoese lire.

41 ADGG, reg. 938, Lettere di Tabarca. 1719-1725; reg. 941, Manuale di Tabarca. 1726–1731, Calcoli di avaria. On assessment of shipping risks from Tabarka, see Piccinno (2008, pp. 177–185). On insurance premiums on the Genoese market in 17^th and 18^th centuries, see Iodice and Piccinno (2021).

42 These cases have been found via the AveTransRisk advanced search by selecting ‘Tabarka’ in the ‘Port visited’ research function. URL: http://humanities-research.exeter.ac.uk/avetransrisk.

43 ADGG, reg. 938, Lettere di Tabarca. 1719-1725, c. 182v, 28/12/1724.

44 ASG, Conservatori del Mare 377, 30/04/1696, recorded in the AveTransRisk db as the ID50349.

45 ANP, Marine, B/7/471, Renouvellement du traitté pour la ferme et la garde de l’isle de Tabarca fait avec les Lomelins le 31 May (6 Aôut) 1695. On this contract, see Piccinno (2019).

46 ANP, Marine, B/7/471, Extrait des papiers et memoires concernant l’Isle de Tabarca …, cc. 679–682.

47 Doukas, M., Decline and Fall of Byzantium to the Ottomans Turks. An annotated Translation of “Historia Turca Byzantina” by Harry J. Magoulias, Detroit, 1975 (1^st ed. 1834), p. 212, cited in Dauverd (2015, p. 99).

Additional information

Funding

Research for this essay was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, ERC Grant agreement No. 724544: Avetransrisk. Average – Transaction Costs and Risk Management during the First Globalization (Sixteenth–Eighteenth Centuries).