Article
French
ID: <
10.4000/rives.5723>
·
DOI: <
10.4000/rives.5723>
Abstract
In the second half of the seventeenth century, thanks to a new boom in the naval armaments industry, the business activities of Genoese inhabitants received, in the words of Braudel, an extraordinary new impetus. The middle of the century saw the construction and financing of large vessels that were then loaded with merchandise for colonial trading centers, such as Cadiz, Lisbon, Amsterdam, and London. In a few years, Liguria’s major bankers were focusing their activities on the colonies, profiting from the city’s traditional role within the Spanish Empire. It was against this background that the Fieschi brothers’ commercial interests flourished. As members of one of the oldest noble families in Genoa, Nicolò and Pietro Francesco Fieschi decided, in the 1680s, to exploit Lisbon’s commercial network in Liguria in order to trade directly with India in exchange for diamonds and other Asian goods. Drawing on the Fieschi company archives, it is possible to analyze their history within the history of commerce famously studied by Francesca Trivellato, who discovered an intercultural network established by Jewish, Armenian, and Hindu merchants. Contrary to conclusions put forward by other historiographical researchers, Genoa was a predominant global player in coral production and trade during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.