Transcript Dec ppt part 1

ECONOMY OF RAGUSA,1300-1800
The Tiger of Mediaeval Mediterranean
Oleh Havrylyshyn and Nora Srzentic
“There where your argosies with portly sail… Argosy (Webster’s Dict.)
Do overpeer the petty traffickers…”
A large merchant ship
(Shakespeare Merchant of Venice)
with a rich cargo…
a ship of Ragusa!
LAUSA (lat: cliff) becomes…RAUSA
and eventually…RAGUSA
OUTLINE
1. INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION
2. TIMELINE OF POLITICAL-HISTORICAL
EVOLUTION, MAIN ECONOMIC PERIODS
3. QUANTITATIVE INDICATORS AND SOME
CLIOMETRIC HYPOTHESIS TESTS
4. EXPLAINING RAGUSA’S PROSPERITY
AND DECLINE:
5. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE
RESEARCH
1.INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION
• DEC. THEMES,IMPACT OF GLOBAL
CRISIS, REACTIONS—RESILIENCE
HYPOTHESIS•
EN PRINCIP, DATA AVAILABLE IN DUB.
ARHIV …VERY RICH SOURCE OF
PRIMARY DATA, DETAILED RECORDS
FROM AT LEAST 13TH C…..BUT…
Archival work very laborious, will require
more time and for future research : we
scour historical literature for “hard” data
and link together for a data set.
ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS
• MEDIAEVAL RAGUSA AN EXAMPLE OF
SMALL, OPEN, PRUDENT ECONOMY WITH
STRONG FUNDAMENTALS
• MANY HISTORIANS PRAISE RAGUSA: Idriss
(1153):large maritime town,industrious
Giustiniani(1553):noble’s fortunes rival Venice
Braudel : the jewel of the Adriatic
Stipetic : mediaeval Adriatic Tiger
Luetic : merchant fleet larger than Venice!
• MAIN QUESTION ASKED: How could such a
tiny state with no resources become so
prosperous?
PURPOSE: TEST QUANTITATIVELY
COMMON EXPLANATIONS OF
RAGUSA PROSPERITY
• HISTORICAL LITERATURE CONTAINS A
NUMBER OF KEY “EXPLANATIONS”: location,
a business-trading orientation of nobility and
citizens, fair provision of social infrastructure
for all, limited defense exp. substituted by
diplomacy.
• DATA SET: SCOUR HIST.LITERATURE FOR
STATS, CHARTS, LINK TOGETHER – only some
of above hyp. can be tested
2. POLITICAL-HISTORICAL
TIMELINE OF MAIN PERIODS
•
•
•
•
•
•
BYZANTINE
VENETIAN
HUNGARIAN
OTTOMAN
AUSTRIAN
FRENCH
OCCUPATION
• AUSTRIAN
• YUGOSLAV
• CROATIAN
: 7TH c. to 1204
: 1204 to 1358
: 1358- 1526
: 1526 -1684
: 1684-1806
: 1806-1815
: 1815-1918
:1918-1992
: 1992- present
LIBERTAS OR SUZERAINTY?
• FORMALLY , REPUBLIC OF RAGUSA
WAS ALWAYS UNDER SUZERAINTY OF
ONE LARGE POWER OR ANOTHER, BUT
IN PRACTICE HIGHLY AUTONOMOUS, de facto
FREE TO GOVERN ITSELF, UNDERTAKE
TRADE AND TREATIES WITH ALL STATES.
• HOW DID IT DO THIS ? SAME FACTORS
AS EXPLAIN ECONOMIC PROSPERITY
AT LEAST UNTIL ABOUT 1700
• BUT AFTER FRENCH OCCUPATION
EVEN de facto INDEPENDENCE GONE
ECONOMIC PERIODS
FOR ECON. ANALYSIS WE PROPOSE
DIFERENT PHASES , BASED ON
DIFFERENT DETERMINANT FACTORS:
• FOUNDATIONAL PERIOD (-- to 1100)
• THE SILVER PERIOD
(1100-1350)
• THE “GOLDEN YEARS” ( 1350-1550?75)
[[ consensus of historians: this was the height of
maritime prosperity; “golden” does not refer to metalunlike “silver” before]]
• CAPE OF GOOD HOPE AND DECLINE(1575-1750)
• BRIEF REVIVAL PERIOD (1750-1806)
• POST-REPUBLIC PERIOD ( 1806-present)
FOUNDATIONAL PERIOD
RAGUSA IN 12th. c
SILVER PERIOD REMINDERS…
• SILVER ,
Croatian“SREBRO”
Latin “Argentum”
• WHENCE…
HOTEL
GRAND VILLA
ARGENTINA !
FIRST CLIOMETRIC TESTS:
economic dynamism by period
• DATA ON NUMBER OF KEY URBAN BUILDINGS
BY PERIOD MAY REFLECT GROWTH AND
WEALTH OF RAGUSA ( Tab. 1)
• SHARE AND INTENSITY OF BUILDINGS-cols.3,4CONSISTENT WITH CONSENSUS THAT
“GOLDEN YEARS” WERE MOST PROSPEROUS.
• HOWEVER, THE HYP. IMPLICIT IN WORKS OF
STUARD , THAT SILVER PERIOD VERY
DYNAMIC AND PRECURSOR OF THE PEAK
WEALTH LATER , IS ALSO CONFIRMED
TABLE 1. A MILLENIUM OF MAJOR
BUILDINGS… by economic period
ECONOMIC PERIOD
NUMBER
OF BUILDINGS
%SHARE
OF TOTAL
BULDINGS
PER CENTURY
Foundational Period
To 1100
5
10
1.25
Silver Period
1100-1350
13
25
5.2
Golden Years
1350-1575
20
39
8.9
Cape Hope ,Gradual
Decline:1575-1750
8
16
4.6
Revival Interlude
1775-1806
0
0
0
Post-Independence
1806-1900
5
10
2.5
TOTAL
51
100
n.a.
3 QUANTITATIVE
INDICATORS
Indeed, Golden Years…
y.1425 after
expanding
the territory
to Konavle
y.1500 saw a record
in population
In its most
prosperous
years,
Ragusa
was
lagging
only behind
Venice
The end of the
Golden Period
Revival
interlude
Sharp growth
of the fleet size
in the Golden
Years
In 1575
the
shipping
tonnage
reaches
its peakcoincides
with the
END of
the
Golden
Period
At the peak
years, size and
capacity of the
fleet equaled
Venice or even
UK, the latter
picking up
strongly
immediately
afterwards
• After 1600, Western European forces become
unbeatable competitors: Italian markets get smaller
compared to the economic prosperity of Western
markets, and new sea route around the Cape was more
lucrative
Tonnage
as a proxy
for
economic
activity
• However, a decline in GDP already as of y.1500