The Commercial Development of Ancona, 1479-1551 Author(s): Peter Earle Source: The Economic History Review, New Series,

Vol. 22, No. 1 (Apr., 1969), pp. 28-44 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Economic History Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2591944 Accessed: 10/06/2009 20:03
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of Ancona, TheCommercial Development 1479-I551

BY PETER EARLE

IN

the last thousand years the Adriatic port of Ancona has on three occasions

left aside its normal geographical role, as a minor port serving central Italy, to enjoy a brief period of distinction in the trade of the Mediterranean region as a whole. Each time the initial development has been halted and the city has reverted to its former position of merely regional significance. This article will attempt to trace and explain the second of these periods of development, when, in the course ofthe first halfofthe sixteenth century, Ancona achieved the greatest economic importance relative to other cities in the whole of its history.' It will be seen that far from being a phenomenon of purely local interest, this development coincided with and was causally connected with the rise of other ports as widely dispersed as London, Antwerp, Ragusa (Dubrovnik), and Constantinople. The ease with which Ancona was transformed from a port of merely regional significance to a major international entrepot serves to illustrate an important feature of pre-industrial economies-the flexibility of international trade. Given the right circumstances, the commerce of any port with a reasonable harbour could quickly be multiplied. The high value and low bulk of most goods entering international trade meant that carriage costs and thus the shortest routes were not a vital part in determining final costs, whilst the small scale of all trade meant that much fixed capital was not necessary to develop a new route and new ports. These factors were certainly an advantage to the international merchant community who were often faced with a shifting pattern of criteria on which to base their decisions regarding routes. And it is indeed such exogenous changes, mainly political, that determined the development of Ancona during this period. For the changes in Ancona were not the result of a burst of enterprise by the natives of the city but were caused by the independent decisions of strangers to channel existing trades through Ancona instead of by alternative routes. That these trades expanded in the course of the period was also the result of factors that lay outside anything that happened in Ancona itself. Individual ports rarely played a dominant role in international trade, and their best reaction to such good fortune as Ancona enjoyed was to make their facilities as attractive as possible, by keeping the harbour clear of detritus, reducing tariffs, providing accommodation for people and goods, and by welcoming all merchants regardless of
I The first period was in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when Ancona played a part in the commercial revival associated with the crusades and became the centre of opposition to Venetian power in the Adriatic. Growing Venetian strength resulting in a humiliating commercial treaty of 1 264 checked sobrela marinade Barcelona,I (Madrid, I 779), further development. A. de Capmany, Memoriashistdricas du Levant(Leipzig, i885-6), I, I57, 3i8, 346; R. Cessi, La repubpt 2, I2; W. Heyd, Histoiredu commerce blica di Veneziae iiproblemaadriatico(Naples, 1943), pp. 44-74; G. Luzzatto, 'I piu antichi trattati tra Venezia e le cittA Marchigiane', NuovoArchivioVeneto(i906), pp. 5-42, and pp. 65-70 for the text of the I264 treaty. The third period was in the eighteenth century when the establishment of Ancona as a Free Port led (Paris, i965). to new commercial expansion. See A. Caracciolo, Le portfranc d'Anco'ne

28

ANCONA

29

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30

PETER

EARLE

race, religion, or nationality in a general effort to hold on to their good fortune as long as possible. Though merchants and shipowners of Ancona participated to a certain extent in the expansion of trade, it was primarily in this passive role that the natives of the city encouraged and benefited from the altered trading conditions of the first half of the sixteenth century. II Although some writers have noted the development of Ancona during this period,' the port has never before been studied in any detail. Such a study in fact becomes possible only for the last quarter of the fifteenth century onwards, when volumes of contracts registered before the notaries public become sufficiently numerous to allow an estimate of the nature and extent of the commerce of the port to be made.2 Despite the developments in commercial law which made it no longer essential to register a contract to provide evidence in the event of future litigation,3 the notaries in Ancona registered contracts of great interest to the commercial historian right up to the end of the period studied. Most numerous were contracts of sale,4 but charter-parties, insurance contracts, and contracts of exchange5 were also on occasion registered. From the evidence of these contracts it is possible to build up a picture of the structure of the market at Ancona and of the maritime trade that fed it. There is, however, little scope for statistical analysis. The notaries did not register all contracts, nor do all the notaries' books survive, and there is no reason to assume that those that do survive constitute an acceptable random sample. The only other source material at Ancona itself, which can be used to check the evidence of the notaries, consists of the surviving books of the depositario generate.7This official supervised most of the collection and disbursement of the Comune's revenue,8 both before and after the loss of self-government in I532.9 One of the major sources of income was the Customs, and in these books Customs payments for six-month periods are summarized. There are considerable prob1 J. Delumeau, Viedconomique et socialede Romedansla seconde moitid du XVIe siece (Paris, I 957), pp. 95M. Mollat, ed. IVe Colloqued'Histoire Maritime (Paris, i962), pp. IOI-3. M. Natalucci, Ancona attraverso i secoli, 3 vols. (CittA di Castello, i960), is the only recent history of the city. 2 A list of the notaries whose volumes survive in the Archivio di Stato at Ancona can be found in G. Giuliani, 'I fondi dell' Archivio di Stato di Ancona', Rassegnadegli Archividi Stato, xvii (i957), 57-8. The notaries used in this article and the key to the references in the footnotes can be found on p. 44. 3 R. Doehaerd and C. Kerremans, Les relations commerciales entreGenes,la Belgiqueet l'Outremont d'apres les archives notariales gdnoises,I40o-I44o (Brussels, Rome, 1952), pp. viii-ix; A[rchivio] S[toricol C[omunale di] A[ncona], Constitutiones sive Statuta MagnificeCivitatisAncone(Ancona, I 5 I 3), rubric lxxxii. 4 The normal form was the promissiorelating to a straightforward sale of goods on credit and the promise of the purchaser to pay for them at some future date. 5 Most exchange contracts were in the form of a contract of cambium. This was in effect a loan contract where goods or cash were lent to a travelling merchant who promised to repay the loan on his safe arrival at a specified port. 6 There is no full list of notaries active during this period. That there were considerably more than those whose volumes survive can be seen from a document of 1480 signed by eight notaries. Five notaries' volumes survive for this year but only three of these notaries appear as signatories to the document.-i 1 A.S.A. i, c8. (See p. 44.) 7 A.S.C.A. 59, 6i, 66, 68, I15, i i6, I I7, i i8, I21, 43I. This numeration is from G. Angelini Rota, L'Archivio StoricoComunale di Ancona(Ancona, I 956). 8 R. Roia, 'L'amministrazione finanziaria del comune di Ancona nel sec. XV', Atti e memorie di storia patria per le Marche,4th ser. I (I924), 141-246. 9 Ancona became fully incorporated -in the Papal State in 1532.
ioi;

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31

lems to be faced in using the evidence from them;' and the most that can be safely extracted is some idea of changes in the volume of goods passing through the port and the names and relative importance of individual merchants. Unfortunately, none of the surviving books gives enough information to allow a breakdown of the goods entering and leaving the port. The only document permitting this, and then for a period of but three months and solely for imports, is a Customs register for I55I2 that records all ships that entered the port, their cargoes, and the duty that was paid on them. Since the books of the depositario generatedo allow some check on the evidence from the notaries' registers, especially in showing whether the latter represent the activities of the leading merchants of the port, the years in which they survive have been used as a basis for sampling the mass of material in the notarial archives.3 In addition, all the surviving notarial registers for the period I479-84 have been examined to provide a base from which to observe subsequent changes, and also all the volumes of a few notaries whose contracts were particularly rich in information on maritime and commercial affairs.4 Sources from the main centres with which Ancona had commercial relations give a fuller picture. Most important of these were account and letter books of Florentine and Ragusan cloth merchants of the early sixteenth century,5 the notarial archives of Ragusa, Zara, and Pesaro,6 and the records of the Cinque Savi alla Mercanzia at Venice.

III
The description of the changes that occurred in the commerce of Ancona will be divided into three main periods. A base period, I479-84, is first described and is then compared with two periods of the first half of the sixteenth century, and I54I-5 I. The first of these two latter periods is one of fairly rapid I500-27 development whilst the second is one of consolidation of the earlier changes. Although overall there was very considerable commercial development in the city, this development seems to have had remarkably little effect on the basic economy of the city. Commercial development did not lead as it did elsewhere to much industrial and agricultural change, but was rather superimposed on an existing framework which probably remained similar in its outlines throughout.
1 In over eighty years only a total of five is covered by the surviving books; Feb.-July I470, I48i; March-July I493, I498; Feb.-July I502, I509, I5I7, I5i8, I527; May I54I-Jan. I542. Not all goods

entering the port were covered by payments recorded in these books, though the classes of goods that were remained substantially the same. For exemptions see Roia, op. cit. pp. 236-7. The rates on which duty was calculated changed during the period, though the level of the rates moved in the opposite direction to the totals recorded. For details see p. 42, n. 4. Finally, the lump sums paid by many leading merchants probably concealed some form of discount. 2 A.S.C.A. 507, Cartolaro di Giulio Lione.
3 Excepting I470, I493, and I498 which were poorly represented in the surviving notaries' books. The

year I 55I, in which the Customs register mentioned above has survived, has also been studied. 4 Cresci, Stracca, Leoni, and Giustiniani. See p. 44. 5 The books studied were A[rchivio di] S[tato di] F[irenze], CarteStrozziane,ser. v, 78, 8o, 86, 87, 89, 93; Baker Library, Harvard Business School, Medici (subsequently Medici), MSS 5i6, 5i8, 536(4), 538, 539, 552a (all supplied on microfilm); Archivio dello Spedale degl' Innocenti at Florence, Estranei 406, 417; and D[rzavni] A[rhiv], D[ubrovnik], Privata 29. 6 The collection Diversa Notariaeat Dubrovnik has been studied for the same years as the notaries in Ancona. At Zara only the notaries of Zara itself and Sibenico have been studied. Both these collections and the notarial archives of Pesaro have only been sampled for the years I47q-I W27.

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Thus although by the I 520's Ancona had become an international centre for the distribution of textiles, textile raw materials, and hides, this had apparently little effect on the textile or leather industries of the city.' Similarly the growth of population that occurred as a result of the influx of foreign merchants, brokers, bankers, and shipowners did not call forth an equivalent growth in either local consumption industries or in local agriculture. The response seems rather to have been a movement from a position of regional exchange within the Adriatic to one where it became increasingly necessary to draw some of the local consumption requirements from a wider supply region. In the period I479-84, however, the significance of Ancona was still mainly as an important part of a limited exchange economy within the Adriatic. Apart from the international trade of Venice, Ragusa, and Ancona, the Adriatic was a region whose natural resources complemented each other very well. The west coast was an area of fairly fertile agriculture where surpluses could be collected at many small ports for distribution either amongst each other or, more important, to the deficient areas of Venice and the ports of the north and east Adriatic. The north and east Adriatic in turn produced sylvan, mineral, and pastoral products in which the west coast and Venice were deficient. Although most areas supported some local industry, there was some specialization in the larger cities such as Venice, Chioggia, Ferrara, Bologna, Ancona, and Ragusa. The limits of this region were approximately the watersheds of the mountain ranges that surrounded the area except in the Po valley. Within this region Ancona was able to supply itself with most of its food needs from the resources of its fertile hinterland,2 although exchange of agricultural produce with the neighbouring ports was a frequent occurrence.3 Normally, Ancona was a net exporter to the deficient areas in the north and east Adriatic. In return the city received from Venice industrial goods and the redistributed products of its international trade-iron from Trieste, salt from Sibenico, timber from Fiume, wax from Ragusa, as well as hides, salt meat, and salt fish from these and other places.4 Ancona's contribution to trade outside the Adriatic consisted almost entirely of the dispatch of two or three ships each year to the eastern Mediterranean,
1 Evidence for industrial development or the lack of it is extremely difficult to obtain, but the following quotation from F. Ferretti, Diporti notturni(Ancona, I579), p. I43, listing the industrial accomplishments of his native city provides negative evidence. Ferretti was boasting, and if this was all that he could think of, it seems reasonable to suppose that there was not very much industrial development in Ancona; ". .. la vaga arte d'imbiancar la cera zaura, de la quale ordinariamente se ne serve Roma non che il resto delle Ecclesiastiche provincie; quella della tentoria di ogni sorte di tela, di drappo e di pezze di panni ... l'util arte di cilandrare o manganare le tele, l'arte di far canapi o cavi per servigio delle grosse navi e de gli altri legni da gabbia. . . " 2 The Venetian, Marco Dandolo, travelling from Macerata to Tolentino in I523, described this part of the hinterland of Ancona as very beautiful country "with little hills covered in corn: that for thirty miles, besides the grain, not even the smallest stone could be found; it seems quite impossible to gather, let alone dispose of, so much corn".-E. Alberi, Relazioni Venete(Florence, i839), 2nd ser. iII, 88. 3 The best illustration of this short-distance trade which existed throughout the period is in the Customs register, A.S.C.A. 507, passim. Not much of this trade appears in contracts registered before the notaries, but see I5 A.S.A. I-3, c 70r; io A.S.A. I, cc 3sr, 53r; I4 A.S.A. 5, cc 3ir, gov; I5 A.S.A. 5, c 204r; i6 A.S.A. i, c 2i, for the period I479-84. Also in the librode depositario for I48i which gives more information on the goods that entered trade than most of these books, A.S.C.A. 6i, cc 3r-sr. 4 I5 A.S.A. I-3, c 68v; 14 A.S.A. I-3, C I24v; 4 A.S.A. i, c 22or; I4 A.S.A. 5, cc 36r, 73V,9IV, I I4r; A.S.C.A. 6i, cc 3r-Ior.

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33

principally to Constantinople or Alexandria.' These ships carried oil, wine, and soap2 from Ancona and its surroundings, but space was also chartered by inland merchants who loaded such goods as Fabriano paper and the cloth of Siena and Florence.3 Normally calling at Ragusa to complete their cargoes, the ships brought back from the East Egyptian and Syrian cotton, spices and drugs, raw silk, wool, and hides for distribution from both Ragusa and Ancona.4 These voyages were the most enterprising made by Anconitans during this period and probably represented a long tradition of trading with the Levant. Although, in fact, the sort of business done by these ships-the exchange of agricultural produce and European industrial goods for the products of the Ottoman Empire-was to be the main function of the port in the sixteenth century, it was to be the land routes rather than the all-sea routes that were to be most important. In the period I479-84, despite the existence of ships trading from Ancona both within and without the Adriatic, the impression gained from the notaries' contracts is one of a fairly low level of commerce. Goods from outside the Adriatic were the exception and as such catch the eye, but the bulk of the contracts either consisted of the everyday transactions of a community whose main interest was in agriculture rather than in maritime commerce, or, when they did relate to more commercial transactions, referred mainly to retail rather than wholesale trade, or at least indicated a small scale of operation.5 Transit trade existed, if only because Ancona was the natural port for a wide area of central Italy, but its extent was limited compared to later periods. The commerce of this base period mainly served the consumption needs of the city itself or at the most assisted in the necessary redistribution of goods between different areas of the Adriatic. conMoving forward to the notaries' books examined in the period I 500-27, siderable changes in the commerce of the city can be observed.6 Individual transI-3, cc 6v, 83v; 8 A.S.A. 34, C 578r; I5 A.S.A. 5, cc 78r, 94. the principal export industry of Ancona itself and records of soap being shipped to Constantinople can be found in many of the cambium contracts, e.g. I 5 A.S.A. 5, cc 78r, 94r. For protection to soap manufacturers see C. Ciavarini, 'Statuti Anconitani del mare, del terzenale e della dogana e patti con diverse nazioni', Fonti per la storia delle Marche,I (Ancona, I 896), I I9. 3 See A.S.C.A. 6i, c iIr, for the cargo of Florentine and Sienese cloth and silks loaded on a Ragusan ship bound for Constantinople in I48i. 4 I 4 A.S.A. I -3, cc 6v, 83v, I 24v; 8 A.S.A. 34, C 578r; I 5 A.S.A. 5, cc 78r, 94; and A.S.C.A. 6i, c i i v, for the Anconitan end of this trade. For Ragusan examples see D.A.D. Diversa Notariae 65, cc I 2v,
1 I4 A.S.A. 2 Soap was

I 62V.

5 This sort of statement is difficult to establish beyond doubt. It really rests, as does so much when working with notarial records, on a general impression of the change between the sort of contracts registered in this period and those of the sixteenth century. Where whole volumes of contracts are given up to commercial affairs later on, in this base period such contracts are very difficult to find. Often, indeed, it seems surprising that the notaries are working in a port at all, so few are the references to things maritime. Although this could conceivably be the result of notaries whose clientele lay in the commercial world having no volumes extant, some evidence to the contrary lies in the fact that one notary, Giacomo Alberici, whose volumes cover the whole period from I479 to I 509, shows just this change to a more commercial world. Another indication is in the sums of money that form the subjectmatter of contracts. Taking an arbitrary dividing line of i 00 ducats, very many more contracts relating to sums greater than this can be found in the sixteenth than in the fifteenth centuries despite a fairly stable price level till at least the I530's. See below, p. 34, n. i. 6 The expansion of trade described below can also be seen from the libri de depositario. Total Customs payments in gold ducats as recorded in these books were:

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actions became much larger,' a greater part in both the commerce and the shipping of the port was played by strangers, a greater variety of goods entered the port from a wider area, and the transit and entree t trades expanded relatively to the trade for domestic consumption. The sort of trade described in the previous section continued, and even expanded, as a result of a population swollen by immigration caused by the developments in the other trades, but no longer did it play such a dominant part in the commercial life of the city. Alongside .these changes, the old structure of agriculture and local industry appears to have remained largely unchanged. The three main branches of trade during this period were those dealing with the export of cloth, the import of hides, and the collection and redistribution of agricultural goods. Most of the other goods that entered or left Ancona did so as a result of the development of these three basic branches of the city's commerce. It will be seen that as each of these trades developed, so the same development attracted traders from a wider range, thus initiating a cumulative expansion. It will also be seen that while all three of these trades existed in embryo in the period I479-84, their scale and scope had changed so much as to justify the conclusion that, in the sixteenth century, Anconitan trade performed a very different function within the Mediterranean region. Down to the I520'S the cloth trade of Ancona was mainly a transit trade. Ancona was a station on the most important axis of Florentine trade whose key points were Florence itself, Ancona, Ragusa, and Constantinople. To the west the route extended in two main directions: to the wool ports of eastern Spain and to the Florentine-dominated emporium of Lyons. To the east the route split at both Ragusa and Constantinople into many parts leading to all the great cities of the Ottoman Empire. It was to the east that nearly all Florentine cloth not sold in Italy was consigned,2 and thus the abandonment of the Florentine galley system3 and the establishment of Ancona as by far the most frequented of the Italian Adriatic ports in this trade was an important factor in the city's development. As has been seen above, some Florentine cloth went through the port even in the period I 479-84, and through the I 490's Florence continued to use Ancona.
I Feb. -3I July I March-3I July I I481

630
402 62I

1493

I Feb.-3I i Feb.-3I

July 1509 July 15I7

3,047 3,o60

3,939 I Feb.-3I July I5i8 672 i Feb.-3I July I527 3,209 Sources:A.S.C.A. 6i, 66, 68, I I5, i i6, I I7, i i8, I21. For a criticism of this evidence see p. 3 I, n. I. The low figure for I502, which does not reflect the expansion seen in the notaries' contracts, is probably explained by the Veneto-Turkish War which did not end till May I503. There is no record of any shipping outside the Adriatic in the year I502. 1 Thus, for example, while only three sales of hides worth more than ioo ducats were found in the whole period I479-84, there were 2I in the volumes of the single year I502 and 68 in I509. There were two contracts worth more than 300 ducats in I502, I3 in I509, and 23 in I527. 2 Alberi, op. cit. 2nd ser. i, 'Relazione di Firenze del clarissimo Marco Foscari, I527', p. 28. Foscari stated that the production of garbocloth made with Spanish wool was I4,000 cloths a year. Of this number, IOOOO were sent to Constantinople, the rest being sold in Florence, Rome, Naples, and other places. This agrees with the evidence of the Florentine account books of the early sixteenth century that have been examined. No records of shipments of garbocloth other than to Rome, Naples, or the Levant have been found. 3 M. E. Mallett, The Florentine Galleysin theFifteenthCentury (Oxford, i967), pp. I45-52, discusses the reasons for the decline of the Florentine galley system. One reason (p. I47) was that cloths to the east were being directed more and more along the overland routes across the Balkans.

I March-3 I July I498 Feb. -3I July 1502

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What distinguishes the sixteenth century in this respect is that the other Adriatic ports, also used by Florence in the I490's, were now almost completely neglected. Together with Florentine woollen cloth, the expansion of this transit trade encouraged the shipping of other goods such as silks, velvets, and jewellery from Florence itself and, from farther back on the route, Perpignan cloth and Rheims linen collected at Lyons.2 In the other direction the main goods were camlets, raw silk, hides, and a wide range of dyes, spices, and other specialities of the Levant trade. The whole of this trade from Lyons to Constantinople was in the hands of Florentines or their agents. A change can be seen in this trade in the I520's. Hitherto most of the cloth had been sold in Turkish cities by agents of Florentine firms, a little always being disposed of on the Anconitan market, but from the I 520'S sales of cloth in Ancona itself became more important than the transit trade. Instead of maintaining agents in Turkish cities, Florentine merchants were now more often selling direct to Ragusan, Greek, and Turkish merchants in Ancona. This development was but one aspect of a trend that can be seen throughout the period. Italian domination of Balkan and eastern Mediterranean trade was being undermined by the rise of local merchants and local shipping. Once Ancona had become established as an international cloth mart rather than just a port of transhipment on the route of Florentine trade, other buyers and sellers of cloth were attracted to the city. Apart from the sales of cloth from other Italian cities, sales of English and Flemish cloth, that had been rare before I52o and then had probably come via Messina and Ragusa, now became more common.4 A new direction to the cloth trade can be found in contracts arranging for the carriage of camlets overland to Flanders to be reinvested in English cloth.5 And just as the changes in the Eastern trade turned Ancona into a cloth mart, so did they establish the city as a centre for the sale of those Balkan and Eastern goods which had previously travelled through Ancona to Florence. All these factors made Ancona a far more attractive port of call for the merchants of
1 In the account books examined the shipment of cloth from Florence went more through the ports of Apulia and Pesaro than Ancona in the 1490's. After i500 only isolated references can be found to shipment through any other port than Ancona. The change can be seen in Medici MS 5i6, cc I44-65, where two breaks in the route used to ship cloth can be seen. In I493 and I494 cloth was shipped via Apulia, in I495 and I497 through Pesaro, and in I496 through Ancona. Two main factors suggest themselves to explain the success of Ancona: the disturbance of the south in the Italian wars and tariff concessions to Florence. 2 For Perpignan cloth see 9 A.S.A. 7-8, c I28r; I3 A.S.A. 9, c 272r. For a business account describing the exchange of Turkish camlets for Rheims linen at the Lyons end of the route see Medici MS 536(4), cc 29, 6o. 3 Prior to the I 520'S the cloth trade is difficult to trace, since it did not involve a change of ownership in Ancona. Only the merchants' account books and the references to cloth exports in the libri de depositeria show how important the transit trade was. Some indication of the change can be seen from the fact that in i509 only four sales of cloth for a value of more than ioo ducats per sale can be found. In I527 there were 23, five of them for more than i,ooo ducats. 4 Although the sale of kerseys can be found as early as I50I (7 A.S.A. 6-7, c I i6v), sales of kerseys as well as panni de Londrabecame much more frequent in the I 520's. A large consignment sold in I527 was 390 kerseys and 20 panni de Londrafor a total of 4,054 ducats (i i A.S.A. I 7-i8, c 8r). References to the sale ofpanni deFiandra, panni limosiari(probably from the Limousin), and panniarmentini (Armentieres) can also be found (i I A.S.A. I7-I8, cc I 7r, I I 7v, I43r; 2I A.S.A. I, c 74v, etc.). A further source of cloth was that of Carcassonne, imported on behalf of Florentine merchants of Lyons (i i A.S.A. 15-i 6, cc I 56V,
7It).; 5 iI

A.S.A. I 5-I 6, cc 68r, 7 I V.

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other centres and it was in the I 520's that the port became truly cosmopolitan. While Ancona became a real entrepot for the cloth trade only in the I520'S, it had occupied such a position in relation to the hide trade from the early sixteenth century and on a small scale even in I479-84. The main features of this trade were the import of hides from a number of regions in central Europe, the Balkans, and the Black Sea and their sale to the leather industry of Ancona itself and to a number of cities in central Italy that had leather industries well beyond their local requirements.' In the early sixteenth century this trade expanded rapidly2 and was almost certainly the most important branch of commerce. Whereas in the fifteenth century most of the imported hides had come from other parts of Italy3 or from central Europe through the port of Trieste, the area drawn upon grew considerably in the sixteenth. Greek hides from both sides of the Balkan peninsula and hides from the Black Sea4 and Alexandria were added to the Trieste hides, while the import of hides from other parts of Italy virtually ceased. There was also a tendency through the period for dressed leather as well as crude hides to be imported. This was either as cordovans or as finished articles, particularly saddlery. Just as cloth brought with it many other articles of trade, so the expansion of the hide trade attracted other goods to the city. Sometimes this was because such things came from the same area as the hides, e.g. wax and iron from the Balkans, and sometimes because the article was a complementary good in the making of leather, e.g. gallnuts5 from the ports of southern Albania and the Morea. In the third main field of trade, the collection and distribution of agricultural goods, change and expansion from the fifteenth-century position of Adriatic selfsufficiency can be seen. From the early sixteenth century, Ancona was no longer able to obtain all its needs in grain from within the Adriatic and became one of the deficit ports supplied in the course of the Ragusan grain trade. Although most imports of food were naturally destined for local consumption, some grain and other agricultural goods were also redistributed. This was done either by the re-export of those goods from its hinterland or elsewhere that were surplus to its requirements or by the charter of boats in Ancona to collect a cargo in one of the specialist agricultural ports of the western Adriatic and deliver either to the deficient areas of the north and east Adriatic or to the ports of the Tyrrhenian Sea. 7 Whilst distinction has been drawn between these three main branches of trade, the interaction between them was close. Ships which brought hides from Ragusa
1 The most important of these cities were Florence, Nursia, Pergola, Rocca Contrata (Arcevia), Sassoferrato, Camerino, San Ginesio, Cingoli, and Sant' Angelo in Vado. There seems no doubt that the Italian Wars must have boosted the industries of these cities. 3 Mainly Tuscany. 2 See p. 34, n. I, for an indication of the change in scale of this trade. 4 From Moncastro at the mouth of the Dniester and later from Varna and Kaffa. 5 Valoneaor vallonea. 6 Ragusan grain ships normally collected their cargoes in Sicily, southern Italy, or the Aegean and then distributed over a wide area. The first reference that has been found to the Marche as a destinaDiversaNotariae8i, c 76v. Pesaro and Rimini were also often named as unloadtion is in I502.-D.A.D. ing ports. 7 ForshipmentstotheTyrrheniansee I3 A.S.A. 5, C 227r; I3 A.S.A. 6, CCI27v, I56v; i i A.S.A. i3-I4, c 2ir, etc.

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or Constantinoplewere likely to take cloth back, or grain would be exchanged for hides in Trieste. The interaction between the trades was the greater because it was often the same merchants who were prominent in all three. Merchants who acted as agents for Florentine firms were also leading dealers in hides and could be found charteringships to load grain. The commerce of the city was in fact dominated by a small group of merchants, almost all of Italian or Ragusan origin, whose membershipshowed considerable continuity from I502 to I527,1 although in the I 520'S there was a significant increase in the number of Turkish subjects frequenting the port as a result of the structural changes in the cloth trade. In the period I54I-5I the structureof trade that had developed by I527 remained the same in outline, but significant changes in detail can be observed.2 By this period the sale of cloth in Ancona had almost certainly outstripped the sale of hides as the leading sector of Anconitan commerce. And within this cloth trade it was the sale of English and Flemish cloth brought overland, seen to have been developing in the I 520's, that was most important.3The sales of Florentine cloth had dwindled almost to nothing, reflecting the disruption of the industry that followed the strugglesof the late I 520'S. Siena had by now replaced Florence as the most important Italian source. The northerncloth that arrivedin Ancona was mainly in the form of kerseys, and ultrafini.4 Most of the reparticularly Winchcombe kerseys,pannideLondra, ferences to cloth are in sales contracts or in charter-partiesfor carriage to the portsof the easternAdriatic, especially Ragusa, Castelnuovo (Herceg Novi), and Velona, and it is difficult to get much idea of the organization of the trade from Antwerp to Ancona. The cloth was definitely brought by river and sea from Ferraraon the last leg of its journey.5 In Ancona the cloth was consigned to a
group of merchants, mainly of Italian, and especially Florentine, origin, who sold the cloth to merchants from the eastern Mediterranean. Most important amongst these were a new group who had not before been very significant. These were Jews, described as either Levantine or Portuguese, many of whom were resident in the city. Jews, Turks, and Greeks played a much more significant role in the hide trade also during this period. Though the same type of Italian or Ragusan import1 This group of merchants can be distinguished by an analysis of the leading payers of Customs duty in the libri de depositeria. 2 The Customs payments recorded in the libro de depositeria for I541-2 (A.S.C.A. 431) were I I,592 ducats for a nine-month period compared with 3,209 ducats for a six-month period in I527 (A.S.C.A. This certainly overstates any growth in the trade of the port as the figures would have been I2I). inflated by the flood of business that followed the signing of peace between Venice and Turkey in October I540. See F. Edler, 'Winchcombe Kerseys in Antwerp (I 538-44)', Economic History Review, VII (I 936), 59-60. 3 Brulez has shown that Ancona received a higher proportion of goods sent overland from Antwerp in I543-5 than any other Italian city.-W. Brulez, 'L'exportation des Pays-Bas vers l'Italie par voie de terre, au milieu du XVIe siecle', Annales,XIV (I959). 4 For the dispatch of Winchcombe kerseys from Antwerp see Edler, op. cit. pp. 57-62. The writer has not yet discovered for certain the provenance of ultrafini.They came on the same boats and were consigned to the same merchants as the English cloth so they have been assumed to be English "superfine" cloth. 5 A.S.C.A. 507, entries I, I32, 257, 3I3; 3I A.S.A. I3, cc I I Iv, 436v.

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export merchant who had dominated the trade in the earlier period still existed, some of his function had been taken over by Jewish or Levantine merchants who sold the hides and other goods brought on their own ships direct to the representatives of the inland cities. A very good idea of the import trade of the city by sea right at the end of the period can be had from an analysis of the Customs register surviving for I55 I.1 During the period of three months the arrival of 32I incoming ships was registered. It is possible to divide the types of shipping using the port into three categories according to size.2 Of the ships in the register, 292 belonged to the smallest category,23 to the middle category, and only 6 to the largest. In terms of carrying capacity, it is estimated that between two-thirds and three-quarters of the total tonnage was made up of the smallest category.3 However, when the shipping on the register is analysed in terms of the value of the goods carried, a very different picture is obtained.4 For instance, nine schirazzi, a medium-sized vessel from the ports of Albania and southern Yugoslavia, were alone responsible for 44 per cent by value of the imports. These ships were loaded with hides, camlets, mohair, and raw silk carried overland across the Balkans. A further 20 of the smallest ships were responsible for 36 per cent by value of the goods imported. These were bringing cloth from Ferrara. The six large ships carried only about 6 per cent of the total. These were loaded mainly with grain and salt. The remaining 286 ships carried only I4 per cent of the total. If the same sort of analysis is applied to goods rather than ships a similar picture emerges. The three main classes of goods that entered into international trade, as opposed to the local subsistence trade-that is, hides, cloth, and camlets-represented 76 per cent of the value of all goods imported in the period covered by this register. If the other goods clearly of an "international" rather than "local" nature are added, such as raw silk, cotton, carpets, wax, spices, and dyes, the total comes to some 83 or 84 per cent. An indication of the favourable treatment given to this kind of trade by the authorities at Ancona is that these goods paid only 70 per cent of the Customs duties as recorded in the register. The 286 ships which carried only I4 per cent by value of the total imported represent the normal trade of Ancona which was necessary to maintain the city's own consumption requirements. A very wide range of goods from ports throughout the Adriatic made up this total. Some boats that were registered carried nothing or just a box belonging to the boat's owner. But of those that were loaded, the diversity of the trade and the degree of specialization that it implied within
1A.S.C.A. 507. 2I May-3I Aug. I55I. 2 Four main ways of classifying shipping have been used. These are price when sold, carrying capacity, size of crew, and the name given to the type of ship by contemporaries. All four methods have their drawbacks but point nevertheless to the same general classification. The three categories distinguished here had the generic names nave, naviglio, and barca.The division of categories is at approximately 75 and I50 tons, though there is some overlap. 3 This estimate, which is very approximate, is deduced by multiplying the number of ships in each category by the average tonnage of that category as quoted in charter-parties for I 550-I. This pattern of a dominance of small shipping is similar to what has been found in other Mediterranean ports. See C. Carrere, 'Le droit d'ancrage et le mouvement du port de Barcelone au milieu du XVe siecle', Estudiosde Historia Moderna,III (I953), 67-I56, and the discussion in Mollat, ed. op. cit. p. I i8. 4 The value of goods on which these percentage figures are based has been estimated by grossing up those goods that paid duty ad valorem and by multiplying the quantity of the goods that paid specific duties by the average of their prices in sales contracts of I 550-I .The results are naturally only approximate.

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the Adriatic can be seen from an examination of those cargoes whose appearance was most frequent. Thus of goods that came mainly from the north and east Adriatic, timber formed the bulk of the cargoes of 3 I of these small boats, fish of I 7, cheese of I 3, and nails of 9. To add to cheese and fish, another element of the Italian diet is shown by the consignments of onions and garlic, particularly the latter, which made up the cargoes of 29 boats, mainly from the western Adriatic. Other prominent cargoes were mercery, mainly from the Po valley (22 cargoes); pots, pans, jars, and earthenware (24); furniture and mats (8); barrels, probably mainly returned empties (I 3); and grain. Grain was imported on I 4 ships of all sizes, but 8o or 90 per cent of the import during this period came on five ships: two from Greece, one from Alexandria, one origin unknown, and one from Senigallia "per fortuna". One other important cargo registered during this period was that of a Ragusan ship with a large cargo of salt. Unfortunately the loading port was not registered, and indeed it is difficult to get much idea of the trade in salt at any time during the period studied.' Weak as this isolated source of statistics undoubtedly is, it does illustrate well the sort of pattern that would be expected from consulting the notarial records alone. As a result of the sort of development that has been described, Ancona by mid-century can be seen as an important T-junction in the system of European trade routes that had developed by that date. The vertical stroke of the T ran north through Ferrara, Milan, Basle, and Antwerp to London. The horizontal stroke ran from Lyons or Marseilles through Genoa and Florence to the west and through Ragusa, Castelnuovo, or Velona to Constantinople in the east. At the junction, Italian and western European manufactured goods and Italian agricultural goods were exchanged for the raw materials and manufactured goods of the Ottoman Empire. Interesting, too, is the fact that although Ancona is a port, this was the junction of two predominantly land routes. Ancona was to lose its importance later in the century as the vertical north-south link became increasingly via Venice or Trieste and as the horizontal east-west link became the Mediterranean proper, using Leghorn as a vital redistribution centre. This later development should not disguise the probability that Ancona was more significant as an entrepot in mid-century than Leghorn.2 The other major facet of international trade that can be seen from the Customs register and which is mirrored in the notarial contracts is that at Ancona not only were Eastern goods exchanged for Western goods but also that these goods
1 For a short period between I5I 7 and I524, Ancona was used as the destination of ships chartered by the Camera Apostolica to carry salt from Iviza. During this period charter-parties and quittance of freight of 49 ships appear in the notarial contracts (see vols. I A.S.A. 33, i i A.S.A. I I-4). But apart from this, references to salt in the notaries' contracts are very few and an overall picture of the salt trade is impossible. 2 Delumeau, op. cit. p. 97, shares this view. Indeed, he thinks that the traffic of Ancona in I55I was equal to that of Leghorn at the beginning of the seventeenth century. F. Braudel and R. Romano, a l'entreedu Port de Livourne(I547-i6ii) (Paris, I951), pp. 39-53, found only Navires et marchandises 3,000 ships registered as entering the port of Leghorn in the twelve years covered in the period I573-93 when they considered their sources most precise. At an average of 250 a year this would seem to show less activity than Ancona in I 55 I with 320 ships entering in three months. Comparisons of this sort are, however, very difficult to make, since the type of ship and the cargo they carried clearly varied between the two ports. Judging from the conclusions of Billioud on the commerce of Marseilles from I5I5 to I599, it seems fairly clear that Ancona was handling more traffic than Marseilles as well as Leghorn.de Marseille, iII (Paris, I95I), 329-33. R. Collier and J. Billioud, Histoiredu commerce

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were exchanged by Easterners and Westerners meeting face to face. The goods from the Turkish Empire were brought to Ancona and sold there by Turkish subjects or Ragusans. Italian and western European goods were brought by western Europeans, especially Italians. In this way Ancona can be seen as a true frontier between Islam and Christendom. This development marks a stage in the resurgence of the commercial vitality of Islam and indeed of the eastern Mediterranean as a whole,1 which lies between the late medieval pattern of Italian and Catalan domination of eastern Mediterranean commerce and the pattern from i6oo onwards of domination by the new maritime powers of the Atlantic and the North Sea. Whilst this role of Ancona, just described, is undoubtedly the most interesting from the point of view of the development of European trade as a whole, it should not be forgotten that the local intra-Adriatic trade, that existed before these developments, remained much the greatest employer of shipping and that the sea routes to the eastern Mediterranean continued to be used. Geographically, land connexions with Egypt and the Aegean coastline of Greece made little sense, and these two areas continued to be important destinations of shipping, particularly in the bulk trades.

IV
The reasons for the expansion of the commerce of Ancona during this period can be seen to have been more the result of luck than of any particularly good judgement on the part of its citizens. The geographical position of the city suited it perfectly to play the role it did in the altered political circumstances of the sixteenth century. The most important of these political changes was the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. It has already been seen how important the Ottoman Empire was both as a market and as a source of raw materials and manufactured goods. What must be remembered here is that virtually the whole area of the Balkans and of the eastern Mediterranean, after centuries of near-anarchy under the declining power of the last Byzantines, had been united under one rule. There seems no doubt that the strong rule of the Ottomans, at least until the death of Suleiman the Magnificent in I566, must have made for much greater internal security; and although there is some controversy about this, most writers accept that Ottoman feudalism was less demanding on the peasant than the regime that it had replaced.2 At the same time that the scene was set for the possibility of internal development within an area that is estimated by Braudel to have contained a population of i 6 million and by Turkish writers even more,3 Turkish aggression against the
1 On this subject see the interesting paper of E. Rivkin, 'Marrano-Jewish Entrepreneurship and the Ottoman Mercantilist Probe in the Sixteenth Century', read at the Third International Conference of Economic Historians held at Munich, i965, and T. Stoianovich, 'The Conquering Balkan Orthodox History,xx ( I960). Merchant', Journal of Economic 2 W. S. Vucinich, 'The Yugoslav Lands in the Ottoman Period', Jnl. Mod. Hist. xxvii (I955); L. S. Stavrianos, The BalkansSince r453 (New York, I958), pp. 37-9; S. J. Shaw, 'The Ottoman View of the Balkans', in C. and B. Jelavich, TheBalkansin Transition(Los Angeles, I 963), pp. 64-7; W. H. McNeill, Frontier(Chicago, i964), pp. 3 I-40; G. Vernadsky, 'On Some Parallel Trends in Russian Steppe Europe's Acad.Arts & Sci. XXXVI and Turkish History', Trans.Connecticut (I945), 27-8. 3 F. Braudel, La Mdditerrande mdditerranden de PhilippeII (Paris, I949), pp. 348-9, d l'Jpoque et le monde

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Christian powers of the Mediterranean switched from land to sea. Apart from the temporary conquest of Otranto in I480, Ottoman ambitions for territorial expansion in this area were confined to the Venetian Empire and the islands belonging to Genoa and the Knights of St John. The results of these changes, and of the simultaneous development of Spanish power in the western and central Mediterranean, was to turn the waters of the Mediterranean each side of the Italian peninsula into a battleground occupied not only by the regular navies of the Turks and the Spaniards but also by a host of pirates and corsairs of all nations who took advantage of the confusion caused by the failure of Venice to fulfil any longer its ancient role of policeman.' Tenenti found a considerable increase in piracy during the early sixteenth century.2 One of the worst-hit areas was the narrow part of the southern Adriatic between Otranto and Velona where Spaniard and Turk faced each other across less than 6o miles of water. This danger, reflected in very high insurance rates, explains to a certain extent the growth of trade to the Levant via the land routes of the Balkans rather than by the sea route. The land route was also speedy, the normal route from Ragusa to Constantinople involving 30 one-day stages.3 It was certainly safer, for despite the possibility of brigands in the mountains of Montenegro, it was far easier to protect a land caravan with an armed escort as the Turks did, than to provide a convoy at sea.4 Whether it was cheaper or not is difficult to say, since there are few records offreight rates from Ancona to Constantinople extant. But in examining the records of cloth merchants at Florence, evidence has been found of the carriage of high-value goods from Constantinople to Ancona at a lower percentage of their value for carriage, storage, insurance, tolls, and commissions together,
estimates the population of the Ottoman Empire in Europe and Asia at the end of the sixteenth century to have been i6 million with another six million in North Africa. 0. L. Barkan, 'La "Mediterranee" de Fernand Braudel vue d'Istanboul', Annales(I 954), pp. I 92-3, thinks that the population for the whole empire would have been over 30 million at the end of the century. He found a growth of 46 per cent in the 13 principal towns of Turkey between I52I-30 and I57i-80 from his study of the Turkish Censuses. 1 One indication of Venetian weakness is the very development of Ancona during this period. That Venice became increasingly interested in having what had once been defacto domination of the Adriatic recognized by law, and that Venice, in submitting to the Julian capitulation after the War of the League of Cambrai, had to allow liberty of movement for Ancona and other ports in the Adriatic also shows its weakness.-Cessi, op. cit. pp. i65-8i. See also below, pp. 42-3. 2 A. Tenenti, 'I corsari in Mediterraneo all' inizio del Cinquecento', Rivista StoricaItaliana, LXXII
3 For the stages from Ragusa to Constantinople and a good description of the problems of the route see A. Manusio, Viaggifatti da Vinetiaalla Tana, in Persia, in India, et in Costantinopoli con la descrittione particolare(Venice, I543), pp. I23-9. The route was via Novi Bazar, Sophia, and Andrinople. The following extract from the table in P. Sardella, Nouvelleset speculations d Venise(Paris, I948), pp. 56-7, gives some indication of the difference between the land and sea routes: Time in days from Venice to Nauplion Crete Alexandria Constantinople (by sea) (by land or land and short sea route)

( I960), 235-82.

Maximum Average

Minimum I9 I7 I5 Distance 950 I,000 950 (land) I,400 (miles) I,350 (sea) 4 G. Richards, Florentine Merchants in theAge of the Medici (Cambridge, Mass., I 932), pp. I 2 I-2, shows how the Turkish authorities could be brought in.

60 36 i8

8i 38

89 65

8I 37

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by land and the short sea route, than they would have had to pay in insurance alone on the all-sea route.' While Turkish developments were thus playing into the hands of the Adriatic port that could provide good facilities for trade between the Turkish Empire and the West, events in Italy were also encouraging the use of land routes to the East. Foremost amongst these was the long struggle between Pisa and Florence from I 494 to I 509 which culminated in the final loss of Pisa's independence. After the war Pisa sank into insignificance as a port and was not really replaced until the full development of Leghorn in the second half of the century. If land routes were to be used for the carriage of those goods most in demand in the growing market represented by the populous cities of the eastern Mediterranean, then these routes emanating from the centres of supply such as London, Flanders, Lyons, and Tuscany almost certainly had to cross the Adriatic somewhere. Ancona was the most suitable of the western Adriatic ports for the crossing.2 The main problem is why Venice was not able to dominate this trade as it was to do later, though unfortunately when events had again changed and much of the trade was once more being carried by sea.3 Part of the reason for Venetian inability to monopolize the trade, though it certainly handled a good deal of it even at the height of Ancona's success, can be seen in the facilities offered by Ancona. To start with, the Anconitan Customs duties were very low. By the end of the period the general duty on imported goods had come down to i per cent.4 The duty on various goods was much less even than this. For instance, cloth imported for sale in the city paid only ten bologniniper bale. This was about one-thousandth of its value.5 Silk, camlets, and hides also paid such nominal rates of duty. The reduction of these duties had been continuous policy throughout the period, starting with reductions to Florenand being extended to all the subjects of the tines and Ragusans in i499-1500 Turk by I 5 I 8.6 The dates are significant in view of the chronology of changes in the trade of the port. Venetian duties tended to be much higher than this and
1 Medici MS 5 I 8. Seventy-six cloths sent from Florence to Andrinople in I 495 at a cost of 86 aspriper cloth and sold in Andrinople at prices ranging from I,2oo to I,650 aspriper cloth, i.e. carriage between 5 and 7' per cent of selling price. Ibid. MS 536(4), a bundle of silk bought in Brusa in I502 was sold in Florence for 494 grossi. Carriage, tariffs, and insurance to Ancona amounted to I9 grossi, less than 4 per cent of selling price. Marine insurance rates Ancona-Constantinople were 8 per cent until I 54I and 6-7 per cent in I 550-I .-D.A.D. DiversaNotariaeIo6, c I62v; I I I, C242r; I I A.S.A. I 7-I8, C7Ir, etc. 2 Ancona had the best natural harbour between Venice and the ports of Apulia. The city was also surprisingly little affected by the wars of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The most that Ancona was called on to do was to provide provisions on occasion for an army in transit, such as that of Lautrec in 1528.-Natalucci, op. cit. II, i6-I7. The only part of the entire fighting of the first half of the sixteenth century that had much direct effect on Ancona was the War of the Duchy of Urbino in I5I6-I 7.-Idem II, 8--I2. 3 D. Sella, 'Crisis and Transformation in Venetian Trade', in B. Pullan, ed. Crisis and Changein the Venetian Economy (I 968), pp. 88-go. 4 The general level of duty in the fifteenth century was 6 per cent ad valorem for goods imported from outside the Adriatic and 2 per cent from within.-Ciavarini, op. cit. pp. io8-io. This had fallen to 22 and 2 per cent respectively by I 5 IO (A.S.C.A. 47, cc 74-5) and to 2- and I per cent by I 55 I (A.S.C.A.
222, CC I-24).

ducats. 6 V. Makuscev, Monumenta (Warsaw, I874), tom. I, vol. I, I28-30, historic SlavorumMeridionalium I33-5, concessions to Ragusans; pp. I78-80, concessions to merchants of Janina, Arta, and Velona; pp. I8O-5, concessions to Levantine subjects of the Turk. A.S.C.A. 47, cc 22-4, 46, concessions to, Florentines; c so, to Lucchesi.

5 8o bolognini to ducat. Bale of cloth in Ancona I IO-30

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goods moving through the city or territory of Venice were often subject to further costly regulations.' In addition to offering low rates of duty, Ancona treated the Levantine and Jewish merchants on whom its prosperity depended very well. Special facilities were laid on for Turkish merchants when they came to the city.2 Equally forward-looking was the attitude of successive Popes to the Jews after the loss of Ancona's independence in I532. Not only were the restrictions on existing Jews removed but Portuguese Marronoes were encouraged to settle in Ancona even though they reverted to Judaism.3 This tolerance, which applied only in Rome, Ferrara, and Ancona of all Italian cities, can have done little to harm a trade based largely on the Antwerp-Italy axis and on the Ottoman Empire where so many of the Jews persecuted in other parts of Europe had already gone.4 Geographical factors also helped Ancona to assert its commercial independence of Venice during this period. In the absence of strong Venetian interference, it was clearly more economical to send Florentine cloth eastwards from a port south of the Po. The establishment of the English staple at Antwerp made it feasible to route English cloth west of the Venetian possessions. Later, with the movement of the staple to Hamburg, this would have been very expensive as Hamburg-Venice was in any case cheaper than Antwerp-Venice.5 The links between Ancona and the distributing ports of the eastern Adriatic were also shorter than those from Venice, though to counter this the route from Ancona had more open sea to cross. Finally, and probably most important, the first half of the sixteenth century was a period when Venice was both politically and militarily weaker than it was either before or after. The struggle to maintain what was left of its empire in the two naval wars against the Turks and in addition the devastations of the Holy League left Venice in a position where it was incapable of retaining complete domination of Adriatic trade. While such factors as these enabled commerce in Ancona to expand in the period studied, the position of the port was nevertheless precarious. There was no particularly strong reason why trade based fundamentally on such distant centres as London, Antwerp, Constantinople, and Florence should continue to pass through Ancona. Ancona had little industry and only a relatively small population to encourage the continuation of such trade in the event of those who controlled the trade, hardly any of whom were Anconitans, deciding to use different routes and different entrep6ts. And so in the future, events beyond the control of Ancona meant that in the seventeenth century the city returned to the
1 Brulez, op. cit. p. 478, explains the preference of Italian merchants to ship through Ancona rather than Venice by the conditions that Venice applied to foreigners. Venetian awareness of this problem is shown by a document of I540 in the Venetian archives, Archivio di Stato di Venezia, CinqueSavi alla Mercanzia,n.s. III, 'Ancona', n.p., which attributes the success of Ancona to low duties and suggests that Venice should lower its duties "il che tornera a grandissima utile di questa citta". 2 Natalucci, op. cit. II, I37-8; Makuscev, op. cit. vol. cit. pp. I88-9. See also C. Saracini, Notitie historiche della citta d'Ancona(Rome, I675), p. 362, "li Turchi ... habitavano in essa Citta [Ancona] senza alcun dubbio, andando, stando, tornando nella medesima, con piui sicurezza, che non facevano nelli loro Paesi. . . 3 Natalucci, op. cit. II, I39-40. 4 C. Roth, The House of Nasi, Dona Gracia(Philadelphia, I947); Delumeau, op. cit. p. 96. 5 W. Brulez, 'Les routes commerciales d'Angleterre en Italie au XVIe siecle', Studi in onore di Amintore Fanfani, iv (Milan, I962), I8I-4.

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comparative insignificance that it had had in the fifteenth.' English cloth went from Hamburg to Venice, or later, with the development of English naval power, direct to the eastern Mediterranean or Leghorn. Venice countered Ancona's links with the ports of the other side of the Adriatic by the development of Spalato as an alternative route into the Balkans in the I580'S,2 and the surge of Turkish, Jewish, and Ragusan enterprise that had done so much to make Ancona a frontier town in the middle of the century began to subside with the end of Turkish expansion in the Mediterranean and the incursion of the English, French, and Dutch into the ports of the Levant. LondonSchoolof Economics
1 As early as I575 the commerce of Ancona was apparently beginning to decline according to a document at Florence (A.S.F. CarteStrozziane, Ist ser. 3i8, c 73r), "ma da detto tempo [1575] in qua, che li Levantini, e altri hanno pigliato la strada di venetia. . . " 2 J. Tadk, 'Le commerce en Dalmatie et a Raguse et la decadence economique de Venise au XVIIeme economic veneziananel siecle', in Istituto per la Collaborazione Culturale, Aspettie causedella decadenza secoloXVII (Venice, Rome, 196I), pp. 258-70.

LIST OF NOTARIES

REFERRED

TO IN THE FOOTNOTES

This article is based on research carried out for a Ph.D. thesis and incorporates, either implicitly or explicitly, material from all the notaries' records studied in the Archivio di Stato at Ancona. This amounts in all to 88 volumes of 43 different notaries. Listed below are only those volumes actually referred to in the footnotes with the reference used in parentheses. Barnaba d'Andrea Ciriaco d'Antonio Corrado di Nicolo Antonio di Domenico Giorgio di Pietro Antonio Stracca Girolamo Pagliarini Troilo Leoni Melchiorre Bernabei Nicol6 Cresci Pellegrino Scacchi Antonio Pavesi Girolamo Giustiniani vol. I, I480-3 (4 A.S.A. i) vols. 6-7, I495-I50I (7 A.S.A. 6-7) vol. 3, I476-8I (8 A.S.A. 3) vol. 4, I484-7 (8 A.S.A. 4) vols. 7-8, 1504-5 (9 A.S.A. 7-8) vol. I, I477-9 (io A.S.A. i) (ii A.S.A. I3-I4) vols. I3-I4, I52I-2 vols. I5-I6,I15234 (I I A.S.A. I5-I6) vols. I7-I8, 1525-7 (ii A.S.A. I7-I8) vol. 1I480-4 (I2 A.S.A. i) vol. 5, I505 (I3 A.S.A. 5) vol. 6, I506 (I3 A.S.A. 6) vol. 9, I509 (I3 A.S.A. 9) vols. I-3, I475-8I (I4 A.S.A. I-3) vol. 5, I484 (I4 A.S.A. 5) vols. I-3, I470-8 (I5 A.S.A. I-3)
vol. 5, I482-5
(I5

A.S.A. 5)

vol. I, I482-4 (i6 A.S.A. i) vol. I, I527-8 (2I A.S.A. i) vol. I3, I54I-2 (3i A.S.A. I3) vols. 2I-2, I55I-2 (3I A.S.A.

2I-2)