"Imperial Ambition in the Early Modern Mediterranean Genoese Merchants and the Spanish Crown. This book examines the alliance between the Spanish Crown and Genoese merchant bankers in southern Italy throughout the early modern era, when Spain and Genoa developed a symbiotic economic relationship, undergirded by a cultural and spiritual alliance. Analyzing early modern imperialism, migration, and trade, this book shows that the spiritual entente between the two nations was mainly informed by the religious division of the Mediterranean Sea. The Turkish threat in the Mediterranean reinforced the commitment of both the Spanish Crown and the Genoese merchants to Christianity. Spain's imperial strategy was reinforced by its willingness to acculturate to southern Italy through organized beneficence, representation at civic ceremonies, and spiritual guidance during religious holidays. Celine Dauverd is Assistant Professor of History and a board member of the Mediterranean Studies Group at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on sociocultural relations between Spain and Italy during the early modern era (1450-1650). She has published articles in the Sixteenth Century Journal, the Journal of World History, Mediterranean Studies, and the Journal of Levantine Studies"--

This study examines the history of medieval and early modern Genoa. It analyzes political, economic, and intellectual developments and argues that the Genoese civic character emerged from the entanglement of its unique form of republicanism and its entrepreneurial economic culture.

The Republic of Genoa was once a major commercial power. Following the Republic's decline in the seventeenth century, Genoese merchants adapted and thrived in the changing Atlantic market. Scholars have examined how other foreign merchant groups operated within the Spanish empire, but until now no one has examined how the Genoese adapted to the challenges of increasing competition in Atlantic trade. Here, Catia Brilli explores how Genoese intermediaries maintained a strong presence in Spanish colonial trade by establishing themselves at the port of Cadiz with its monopoly over American trade, and through gradually consolidating strong commercial ties with the Río de la Plata. Situated at the intersection of European, Atlantic, and Latin American history and making extensive use of Spanish, Italian, and Argentinian sources, Genoese Trade and Migration in the Spanish Atlantic, 1700-1830 provides a unique perspective on eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century transatlantic trade.

The Republic of Genoa was once a major commercial power. Following the Republic's decline in the seventeenth century, Genoese merchants adapted and thrived in the changing Atlantic market. Scholars have examined how other foreign merchant groups operated within the Spanish empire, but until now no one has examined how the Genoese adapted to the challenges of increasing competition in Atlantic trade. Here, Catia Brilli explores how Genoese intermediaries maintained a strong presence in Spanish colonial trade by establishing themselves at the port of Cadiz with its monopoly over American trade, and through gradually consolidating strong commercial ties with the Río de la Plata. Situated at the intersection of European, Atlantic, and Latin American history and making extensive use of Spanish, Italian, and Argentinian sources, Genoese Trade and Migration in the Spanish Atlantic, 1700–1830 provides a unique perspective on eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century transatlantic trade.

Genoa's transformations offer insight into the significant and sweeping changes that were taking place all over Europe.

This book investigates the economic, intellectual and political history of late medieval and early modern Genoa and the historical origins of the Genoese presence in the Spanish Atlantic. Salonia describes Genoa’s late medieval economic expansion and commercial networks through several case studies, from the Black Sea to southern England, and briefly compares it to the state-run military expansion of Venice’s empire. The author links the adaptability and entrepreneurial skills of Genoese merchants and businessmen to the constitutional history of the Genoese commune and to the specific idea of freedom progressively protected by its constitutions and embodied by institutions like the Bank of St. George. Moreover, this book offers an unprecedented account of the actions with which Ferdinand the Catholic protected Genoese merchants in his dominions and of the later, mutual understanding between the Genoese community and emperor Charles V during the Italian Wars, and in particular during the 1520s. These developments in Hispanic-Genoese diplomatic and economic relations are of great significance. The sixteenth-century Hispanic-Genoese alliance is important to understand the characteristics of Habsburg governance and the resilience of Genoa’s republican conservatism. Genoa’s republicanism (based on private wealth and private arms) contradicts historiographical narratives that assume the inevitability of the emergence of the modern, militarized and centralized state. It also shows the inadequacy of Tuscan-centric historical accounts of Renaissance republicanism. The last chapter of the book reveals the consequences of the 1528 Hispanic-Genoese alliance by considering case studies that illustrate the Genoese presence in the Spanish Americas, from Chile to Mexico, since the early stages of conquest and settlement.

In the eighteenth century Genoese merchants thrived in the changing Atlantic market. Their trade and migration are explored here.