Francesca Trivellato
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199379187
- eISBN:
- 9780199379224
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199379187.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History, History of Religion
The introduction lays out the volume’s contours and agenda. It outlines key approaches and concepts that have characterized classic studies of cross-cultural trade by historians such as S. D. ...
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The introduction lays out the volume’s contours and agenda. It outlines key approaches and concepts that have characterized classic studies of cross-cultural trade by historians such as S. D. Goitein, Fernand Braudel, Jerry H. Bentley, and especially Philip D. Curtin. In taking stock of these contributions and in order to advance the scholarly agenda, the chapter elaborates on a set of five questions for the historical and comparative study of cross-cultural trade. These five questions link the volume’s chapters together and can inform future inquiries on the subject in different times and places: (1) Did religion affect cross-cultural trade? (2) Did trust work across religious groups? (3) What role did legal institutions play in building cross-cultural trade? (4) When and how did violence coexist with cross-cultural trade? (5) Do material artifacts bear the imprint of cross-cultural trade?Less
The introduction lays out the volume’s contours and agenda. It outlines key approaches and concepts that have characterized classic studies of cross-cultural trade by historians such as S. D. Goitein, Fernand Braudel, Jerry H. Bentley, and especially Philip D. Curtin. In taking stock of these contributions and in order to advance the scholarly agenda, the chapter elaborates on a set of five questions for the historical and comparative study of cross-cultural trade. These five questions link the volume’s chapters together and can inform future inquiries on the subject in different times and places: (1) Did religion affect cross-cultural trade? (2) Did trust work across religious groups? (3) What role did legal institutions play in building cross-cultural trade? (4) When and how did violence coexist with cross-cultural trade? (5) Do material artifacts bear the imprint of cross-cultural trade?
Francesca Trivellato, Leor Halevi, and Catia Antunes (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199379187
- eISBN:
- 9780199379224
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199379187.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History, History of Religion
This book focuses on trade across religious boundaries around the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans during the second millennium, when transportation technology was fragile and ...
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This book focuses on trade across religious boundaries around the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans during the second millennium, when transportation technology was fragile and religion often a primary marker of identity. It examines a wide range of commercial exchanges from first encounters between strangers who worshipped different gods and originated in different continents to everyday transactions between merchants who lived in the same city yet belonged to diverse confessional groups. Risk and uncertainty often characterized cross-cultural ventures. The threat of violence frequently accompanied such exchanges, too, particularly in places where states lacked institutions to enforce contracts. Still, through gift-giving ceremonies, with the assistance of merchants’ networks, or as a consequence of piracy or pilgrimage, cross-cultural trade took place. The volume’s chapters, written by an international team of historians, shed light on the very mechanisms that facilitated these extraordinary exchanges between members of different religions. They point, for example, to methods for calculating the degree of risk associated with different kinds of economic transactions, the minting of local coins to conform to foreign currency standards, and a pragmatic legalistic approach to religious constraints. They reveal the political, economic, and juridical underpinnings of cross-cultural trade as it emerged or developed at various times and places. They also reflect on the cultural and religious significance of the passage of strange persons and exotic objects—from “infidel” captives to ivory salt cellars—across the many frontiers that separated humankind in the early phase of globalization.Less
This book focuses on trade across religious boundaries around the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans during the second millennium, when transportation technology was fragile and religion often a primary marker of identity. It examines a wide range of commercial exchanges from first encounters between strangers who worshipped different gods and originated in different continents to everyday transactions between merchants who lived in the same city yet belonged to diverse confessional groups. Risk and uncertainty often characterized cross-cultural ventures. The threat of violence frequently accompanied such exchanges, too, particularly in places where states lacked institutions to enforce contracts. Still, through gift-giving ceremonies, with the assistance of merchants’ networks, or as a consequence of piracy or pilgrimage, cross-cultural trade took place. The volume’s chapters, written by an international team of historians, shed light on the very mechanisms that facilitated these extraordinary exchanges between members of different religions. They point, for example, to methods for calculating the degree of risk associated with different kinds of economic transactions, the minting of local coins to conform to foreign currency standards, and a pragmatic legalistic approach to religious constraints. They reveal the political, economic, and juridical underpinnings of cross-cultural trade as it emerged or developed at various times and places. They also reflect on the cultural and religious significance of the passage of strange persons and exotic objects—from “infidel” captives to ivory salt cellars—across the many frontiers that separated humankind in the early phase of globalization.
Silvia Marzagalli
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199379187
- eISBN:
- 9780199379224
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199379187.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History, History of Religion
This chapter suggests that France’s emergence as one of the great early modern European commercial powers was predicated upon daily interactions between merchants of different religions and ...
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This chapter suggests that France’s emergence as one of the great early modern European commercial powers was predicated upon daily interactions between merchants of different religions and confessions who lived side by side in many cities of the kingdom. It identifies evidence of cross-cultural and trans-confessional trade in the primary sources and in the existing secondary literature on early modern France, with a particular focus on Bordeaux. In so doing, the chapter questions the conventional assumption that trade networks worked because they were formed by coreligionists. It proposes, instead, that merchants’ propensity to rely on coreligionists varied according to the risk associated with different kinds of economic transactions. In fact, a common legal and jurisdictional system allowed all merchants residing in France and its colonies to contract with one another.Less
This chapter suggests that France’s emergence as one of the great early modern European commercial powers was predicated upon daily interactions between merchants of different religions and confessions who lived side by side in many cities of the kingdom. It identifies evidence of cross-cultural and trans-confessional trade in the primary sources and in the existing secondary literature on early modern France, with a particular focus on Bordeaux. In so doing, the chapter questions the conventional assumption that trade networks worked because they were formed by coreligionists. It proposes, instead, that merchants’ propensity to rely on coreligionists varied according to the risk associated with different kinds of economic transactions. In fact, a common legal and jurisdictional system allowed all merchants residing in France and its colonies to contract with one another.
