Political Economies of Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean

Maria Fusaro is Associate Professor (Reader) in Early Modern European History and directs the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies at the University of Exeter. She is the author of Reti commerciali e traffici globali in eta' moderna (2008) and L'uva passa. Una guerra commerciale tra Venezia e l'Inghilterra, 1540-1640 (1997), and co-editor of Trade and Cultural Exchange in the Early Modern Mediterranean: Braudel's Maritime Legacy (2010) and Maritime History as Global History (2011). Her articles include 'Cooperating Mercantile Networks in the Early Modern Mediterranean', The Economic History Review 65 (2012) and 'Representation in Practice: The Myth of Venice and the British Protectorate in the Ionian Islands (1801-64)' in Exploring Cultural History (2010).

• Introduction: political economies of empire; 1. The medieval background; 2. The reversal of the balance; 3. The Ottoman Levant; 4. Genoa, Venice and Livorno (a tale of three cities); 5. Trade, violence and diplomacy; 6. Diplomacy, trade and religion; 7. The Venetian peculiarities; 8. The English mercantile community in Venice; 9. The English and other mercantile communities; 10. The goods of the trade; 11. Empires and governance in the Mediterranean; 12. Coda and conclusions; Bibliography; Index.

'Two empires, Venice already old and past its peak, England adolescent and ambitious, met in mingled rivalry and co-operation in the early modern Eastern Mediterranean. English-speaking historians have long regarded the Venetian Empire as a maritime empire prefiguring the British Empire, but their view of Venice and its transactions with England has generally been based on English sources. For the first time Maria Fusaro gives us the English among the creeks and islands of the Venetian empire, as seen by the Venetians themselves. Using archives hitherto little-known or wholly unknown, she paints a lively picture of Anglo-Venetian commerce, diplomacy and war.' Nicholas Rodger, University of Oxford