A ‘source of gold and prosperity’? The Neapolitan free-port debate from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century

This paper investigates the Neapolitan “free port” as it was constantly proposed and idealized from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. The analysis of “secondary” markets that did not have, or only partially experienced this privileged status, can help to shed light on the process of formation and diffusion of the ideal of the free port. The economist Antonio Genovesi noted, during the eighteenth century, how the establishment of a free port in a region often encouraged the adoption of similar policies in adjacent regions, in a perspective of catching up. This is what partially happened in Naples. Naples was a hotbed of ideas and projects aimed at raising the kingdom's finances through the free port. The debates were influenced by the role of the kingdom's merchants and tax collectors, the alliance first with Spain and then with Austria, etc. The Neapolitan economists and politicians discussed at length and passionately the advantages and disadvantages offered by the free port, taking as model other European, American and Asian ports. This enthusiasm, not translated into action, is exemplary of the myth of the free ports and of the stimulus that it could and can still generate.