| dc.description.abstract | This thesis examines Average procedures in Genoa during the seventeenth
century (1590-1700). Genoa was the capital of an oligarchic Republic, ruled by
an elite of patricians actively involved in maritime trade, shipping, international
finance and credit. Average, in particular General Average (GA), is a procedure
to redistribute among all parties involved – shipowners and merchants –
unexpected costs arising during the course of a maritime expedition, due to
damages or other expenses. It is one of the oldest surviving maritime rules,
whose origins predate Roman law.
The port of Genoa constitutes a privileged observation point in the early
modern Mediterranean. Allied to the Spanish Empire, the Republic adopted a
policy of political neutrality in order to survive the great changes that
characterized the international scenario. Thanks to the administrative and
economic policies adopted, the port was one of the main redistributive
emporium in the Mediterranean, acting also as a fundamental hub for the
economy of the region.
This dissertation develops around two well-defined layers. On the one hand, I
investigate the Genoese regulations governing Average and its development
from the medieval to the early modern period. I discuss, for example, the
parallelisms, mutual influences and divergences with respect to other
Mediterranean regulations. On the second layer, Average procedures drawn up
in Genoa have been processed and inserted in the AveTransRisk database in
order to elaborate statistical series. These series, structured around intervals of
years selected on a sample basis, allowed reconstructing the trends of maritime
trade calling at the port of Genoa. The sources analysed, unpublished and
particularly rich in information, have also allowed further observations regarding
the structure of early modern international maritime trade, Mediterranean
cabotage trade and the management of maritime risk by the actors involved. | en_GB |
