Central European merchants in Spanish Atlantic trade and financial circuits during the 18th century
Sprache des Vortragstitels:
Englisch
Original Tagungtitel:
World Economic History Congress
Sprache des Tagungstitel:
Englisch
Original Kurzfassung:
The structure of transatlantic trade in the institutional framework of Spain?s colonial trade system, the so-called Carrera de Indias, is usually described according to the model of a double dependence or asymmetry: on the one hand, Spanish-American markets depended on imports of manufactured goods destined for both consumption and further processing in various production branches, and on the other hand, peninsular Spain, from whichthese products were supposed to be shipped to America, had to resort to European suppliers in order to satisfy American demand. In the historiography devoted to this well-known subject, a double shift could be observed in recent years, that is, firstly, emphasis was placed on productive spaces that formed part of this exchange and which had been left aside in older research. Secondly, the emphasis was placed on the mercantile actors and their practices for this mercantile business, leaving aside the categories of nation-states or (proto-)national economies that marked the most pioneering studies on this topic.
My paper is based on these historiographical considerations and observations and proposes an empirical case study that attempts to shed light on two questions: 1) what was the role of Central European merchants in this mercantile business; 2) what were the mercantile strategies and instruments for integrating into the financial and commercial circuits that supported this mercantile business; and 3) what were the mercantile strategies and instruments for integrating into the financial and commercial circuits that supported this mercantile business?
In order to carry out such an approach, I analyze a sample of Milanese and Bohemian merchants settled in the Andalusian port city of Cadiz between 1670 and 1830, focusing on their mercantile activities and transactions linked to the colonial traffic in the Atlantic.
Sprache der Kurzfassung:
Englisch
Englischer Vortragstitel:
Central European merchants in Spanish Atlantic trade and financial circuits during the 18th century
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