The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the age of Philip II;

Description

Text: English, French (translation) Epigraph Frontispiece Title Dedication & Copyright Contents List of Illustrations List of Figures Preface to the English Edition Preface to the Second Edition Preface to the First Edition Part One: The Role of the Environment CHAPTER I: The Peninsulas: Mountains, Plateaux, and Plains 1. MOUNTAINS COME FIRST Physical and human characteristics Defining the mountains Mountains, civilizations, and religions Mountain freedom The mountains’ resources: an assessment Mountain dwellers in the towns Typical cases of mountain dispersion Mountain life: the earliest civilization of the Mediterranean? 2. PLATEAUX, HILLS, AND FOOTHILLS The high plains A hillside civilization The hills 3. THE PLAINS Water problems: malaria The improvement of the plains The example of Lombardy Big landowners and poor peasants Short term change in the plains: the Venetian Terraferma Long term change: the fortunes of the Roman Campagna The strength of the plains: Andalusia 4. TRANSHUMANCE AND NOMADISM: TWO MEDITERRANEAN WAYS OF LIFE Transhumance Nomadism, an older way of life Transhumance in Castile Overall comparisons and cartography Dromedaries and camels: the Arab and Turk invasions Nomadism in the Balkans, Anatolia, and North Africa as witnessed by western observers Cycles spanning the centuries CHAPTER II: The Heart of the Mediterranean: Seas and Coasts 1. THE PLAINS OF THE SEA Coastal navigation The early days of Portuguese discovery The narrow seas, home of history The Black Sea, preserve of Constantinople The Archipelago, Venetian and Genoese Between Tunisia and Sicily The Mediterranean ‘Channel’ The Tyrrhenian Sea The Adriatic East and west of Sicily Two maritime worlds The double lesson of the Turkish and Spanish Empires Beyond politics 2. MAINLAND COASTLINES The peoples of the sea Weaknesses of the maritime regions The big cities The changing fortunes of maritime regions 3. THE ISLANDS Isolated worlds? Precarious lives On the paths of general history Emigration from the islands Islands that the sea does not surround The Peninsulas CHAPTER III: Boundaries: the Greater Mediterranean A Mediterranean of historical dimensions 1. THE SAHARA, THE SECOND FACE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN The Sahara: near and distant boundaries Poverty and Want Nomads who travel far Advance and infiltration from the steppe The gold and spice caravans The oases The geographical area of Islam 2. EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN The isthmuses and their north-south passages The Russian isthmus: leading to the Black and Caspian Seas From the Balkans to Danzig: the Polish isthmus The German isthmus: an overall view The Alps The third character: the many faces of Germany From Genoa to Antwerp, and from Venice to Hamburg: the conditions of circulation Emigration and balance of trade The French isthmus, from Rouen to Marseilles Europe and the Mediterranean 3. THE ATLANTIC OCEAN Several Atlantics The Atlantic learns from the Mediterranean The Atlantic destiny in the sixteenth century A late decline CHAPTER IV: The Mediterranean as a Physical Unit: Climate and History 1. THE UNITY OF THE CLIMATE The Atlantic and the Sahara A homogeneous climate Drought: the scourge of the Mediterranean 2. THE SEASONS The winter standstill Shipping at a halt Winter: season of peace and plans The hardships of winter The accelerated rhythm of summer life The summer epidemics The Mediterranean climate and the East Seasonal rhythms and statistics Determinism and economic life 3. HAS THE CLIMATE CHANGED SINCE THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY ? Supplementary note CHAPTER V: The Mediterranean as a Human Unit: Communications and Cities 1. LAND ROUTES AND SEA ROUTES Vital communications Archaic means of transport Did land routes increase in importance towards 1600? The intrinsic problem of the overland route Two sets of evidence from Venice Circulation and statistics: the case of Spain The double problem in the long term 2. SHIPPING: TONNAGES AND CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES Big ships and little ships in the fifteenth century The first victories of the small ships In the Atlantic in the sixteenth century In the Mediterranean 3. URBAN FUNCTIONS Towns and Roads A meeting place for different transport routes From roads to banking Urban cycle and decline A very incomplete typology 4. TOWNS, WITNESSES TO THE CENTURY The rise in population Hardships old and new: Famine and the wheat problem Hardships old and new: epidemics The indispensable immigrant Urban political crises The privileged banking towns Royal and imperial cities In favour of capitals From permanence to change Part Two: Collective Destinies and General Trends CHAPTER I: Economies: The Measure of the Century 1. DISTANCE, THE FIRST ENEMY For letter-writers: the time lost in coming and going The dimensions of the sea: some record crossings Average speeds Letters: a special case News, a luxury commodity Present-day comparisons Empires and distance The three missions of Claude du Bourg (1576 and 1577) Distance and the economy Fairs, the supplementary network of economic life Local economies The quadrilateral: Genoa, Milan, Venice, and Florence 2. HOW MANY PEOPLE? A world of 60 or 70 million people Mediterranean waste lands A population increase of 100 per cent ? Levels and indices Reservations and conclusions Confirmations and suggestions Some certainties Another indicator: migration 3. IS IT POSSIBLE TO CONSTRUCT A MODEL OF THE MEDITERRANEAN ECONOMY? Agriculture, the major industry An industrial balance sheet The putting-out or ‘Verlag’ system and the rise of urban industry The system prospered An itinerant labour force General and local trends The volume of commercial transactions The significance and limitations of long distance trade Capitalist concentrations The total tonnage of Mediterranean shipping Overland transport The State: the principal entrepreneur of the century Precious metals and the monetary economy Food, a poor guide: officially rations were always adequate Can our calculations be checked? CHAPTER II: Economies: Precious Metals, Money, and Prices 1. THE MEDITERRANEAN AND THE GOLD OF THE SUDAN The flow of precious metal towards the East Sudanese gold: early history The Portuguese in Guinea: gold continues to arrive in the Mediterranean The gold trade and the general economic situation Sudanese gold in North Africa 2. AMERICAN SILVER American and Spanish treasure American treasure takes the road to Antwerp The French detour The great route from Barcelona to Genoa and the second cycle of American treasure The Mediterranean invaded by Spanish coins Italy, the victim of ‘la moneda larga’ The age of the Genoese The Piacenza fairs The reign of paper From the last state bankruptcy under Philip II to the first under Philip III 3. THE RISE IN PRICES Contemporary complaints Was American treasure responsible? Some arguments for and against American responsibility Wages Income from land Banks and inflation The ‘industrialists’ States and the price rise The dwindling of American treasure Devalued currency and false currency Three ages of metal CHAPTER III: Economies: Trade and Transport 1. THE PEPPER TRADE Mediterranean revenge: the prosperity of the Red Sea after 1550 Routes taken by the Levant trade The revival of the Portuguese pepper trade Portuguese pepper: deals and projects Portuguese pepper is offered to Venice The Welser and Fugger contract: 1586-1591 The survival of the Levantine spice routes Possible explanations 2. EQUILIBRIUM AND CRISIS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN GRAIN TRADE The cereals Some rules of the grain trade The grain trade and the shipping routes Ports and countries that exported grain Eastern Grain Equilibrium, crisis, and vicissitudes in the grain trade The first crises: northern grain at Lisbon and Seville The Turkish wheat boom: 1548-1564 Eating home-produced bread: Italy’s situation between 1564 and 1590 The last crisis: imports from the north after 1590 Sicily: still the grain store of the Mediterranean On grain crises 3. TRADE AND TRANSPORT: THE SAILING SHIPS OF THE ATLANTIC I. BEFORE 1550: THE FIRST ARRIVALS Basque, Biscayan, and even Galician ship The Portuguese Normans and Bretons The first English sailing ships The period of prosperity (1511-1534) II. FROM 1550 TO 1573: THE MEDITERRANEAN LEFT TO MEDITERRANEAN SHIPS The return of the English in 1572-1573 Anglo-Turkish negotiations: 1578-1583 The success of English shipping The situation at the end of the century The arrival of the Hansards and the Dutch From grain to spices: The Dutch conquer the Mediterranean How the Dutch took Seville after 1570 without firing a shot New Christians in the Mediterranean Abbreviations