Whatever the Cost: Grain Trade and The Genoese Dominating Minority in Sicily and Tabarka (16th-18th Centuries)

This work aims at analysing the activities of Genoese merchants and businessmen in the grain trade on traditional and ‘minor’ western Mediterranean markets. Our analysis was based on two strictly connected case studies: Sicily and Tabarka. Both the Genoese communities living on these islands were diasporic minorities which obtained privileges for trading thanks to the strong link between the Republic of Genoa and Spain. In both cases, the port of Genoa was their commercial hub and a redistributive emporium. Regarding Sicily, this study has mostly drawn information from a yet unexploited source: general averages procedures drawn up in Genoa. These documents have been collected in an online database as part of the ERC-funded AveTransRisk project. As for the trade related to the Genoese “colony” of Tabarka administered by the Lomellini family, we used sources kept in the Genoese archives as well as in the French Archives Nationales of Paris.