Territorial control, economic provision, and republican order. The free port of Genoa from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century

The essay traces the stages of legislation on the free port of the Republic of Genoa, from the edict of 1590 (the first one issued in the Mediterranean area) until the end of the ancient regime. The Genoese policy was fluctuating for a long time, as the customs revenues were essential to cover the public debt and, consequently, to maintain fiscal balance. Moreover, the openings towards foreign merchants and other religions were sporadic, and limited to particularly critical situations, on the occasion of which the city needed to recover after serious food or health crises or as a result of occupation wars. The dilemma of the Republic's establishment was between promoting incoming flows of goods and the priority of "gabelle" revenues, without forgetting the problem of the available surface area to store the goods, given the narrow spaces of the port. Another restraining element was represented by the presence of a native merchant class little inclined to share the opportunities of port traffic with other operators. Doubts about the convenience of the free port disappeared in the mid-eighteenth century when it was understood that only by liberalizing trade it would be possible to enter the greatly expanding global commerce