Merchants and Trade Networks in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, 1550–1800: Connectors of commercial maritime systems(Perspectives in Economic and Social History)

This collective volume explores the ways merchants managed to connect different spaces all over the globe in the early modern period by organizing the movement of goods, capital, information and cultural objects between different commercial maritime systems in the Mediterranean and Atlantic basin. Merchants and Trade Networks in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, 1550-1800 consists of four thematic blocs: theoretical considerations, the social composition of networks, connected spaces, networks between formal and informal exchange, as well as possible failures of ties. This edited volume features eleven contributions who deal with theoretical concepts such as social network analysis, globalization, social capital and trust. In addition, several chapters analyze the coexistence of mono-cultural and transnational networks, deal with network failure and shifting network geographies, and assess the impact of kinship for building up international networks between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. This work evaluates the use of specific network types for building up connections across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Basin stretching out to Central Europe, the Northern Sea and the Pacific. This book is of interest to those who study history of economics and maritime economics, as well as historians and scholars from other disciplines working on maritime shipping, port studies, migration, foreign mercantile communities, trade policies and mercantilism.

Table of Contents:
1. Manuel Herrero Sánchez / Klemens Kaps: Connectors, Networks and Commercial Systems: Approaches to the study of early modern maritime trade history Part I: Merchant networks, early modern long-distance trade and globalization: Theoretical considerations and historiographical reappraisal 2. Xabier Lamikiz: Networks, Social Capital and Trust in Early Modern Long-Distance Trade: A Critical Appraisal 3. Montserrat Cachero Vinuesa: Understanding Networking: Theoretical Framework and Evidence from History 4. Ana Crespo Solana: The merchants and the beating of a butterfly’s wings: from local to global in the transfer of economic behavior models in the 18th century Part II: The social composition of networks: Cultural Identities versus Transnationality 5. Eberhard Crailsheim: French and Flemish merchants in Seville as connectors of European and American markets (1570-1650) 6. José Luis Gasch Tomás: Cochineal, silver and porcelain from New Spain to Iberia. The commercial network of Santi Federighi (1600-1643) 7. Manuel F. Fernández Chaves & Mercedes Gamero Rojas: Nations? What nations? Bussiness in the shaping of international trade networks in XVIIIth century Seville Part III: Connecting Spaces: Networks and Systems, Merchants and Political Economies 8. Margrit Schulte Beerbühl: Interconnecting trade regions: International networks of German merchants in the eighteenth century 9. Pablo Hernández Sau: Bouligny’s family network: Between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean (1700-1780) Part IV: The complexity of networks: Formal and Informal Exchange mechanisms and rupture of merchant cooperation 10. Bethany Aram: Hides and the Hispanic Monarchy: From Contraband to Royal Privilege 11. Sheryllynne Haggerty: The Providence: When Networks Don’t Exist

About the Author :
Manuel Herrero Sánchezis Associate Professor of Early Modern History at Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, Spain. Klemens Kaps is apost-doc-Researcher at the Institute for Economic and Social History of Vienna University, Austria.