Other markets: complementary commercial zones in the Nasrid world of the Western Mediterranean (ss. XIII-XV)

Abstract

The Naṣrid kingdom of Granada was integrated into the dynamic space of contacts and exchanges that constituted the southern Mediterranean at this period. The Granadans benefitted from the important presence and commercial activity of the major Italian merchants, and from the systems of navigation by cabotage and micro-exchange that these merchants practised in the region. This facilitated the creation of an active platform of complementary markets that integrated the southern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, the south of Italy, and the Maghribi coasts. In these markets, key roles were played by groups of local traders who were absent from the usual circuits of overseas commerce, dominated as it was by the great merchant communities. This article presents concrete cases of the relations that connected the Naṣrid world to these others through trade.