Within Global Networks: The Emporium City and Foreign Economic Élites (13th–19th cc.)

This chapter explores Naples’s integration into Mediterranean and global trade networks from the late Middle Ages to the eve of industrialisation. From the Angevin-Florentine commercial-financial system to the Aragonese Commonwealth, the city emerged as a strategic hub for redistribution and intermediation. Under Spanish rule, Naples became a megalopolis marked by centralisation, internal provisioning demands and the dominance of Genoese capital. The 17th century saw the rise of Northern European actors – Flemish, Dutch and English – who redefined maritime routes and fiscal privileges. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Naples’s role as a Mediterranean emporium persisted, sustained by foreign mercantile élites and deepened by early industrial initiatives led by Swiss, French and British entrepreneurs. Within structural asymmetries in the international division of labour, the city retained its role as an emporium of a big agrarian economy, highlighting both the vitality and contradictions of its long-standing commercial vocation.