ECONOMY OF RAGUSA,1300-1800The 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…RAUSAand eventually…RAGUSA

OUTLINE1. 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 : 7TH c. to 1204• VENETIAN : 1204 to 1358• HUNGARIAN : 1358- 1526• OTTOMAN : 1526 -1684• AUSTRIAN : 1684-1806• FRENCH

OCCUPATION: 1806-1815• AUSTRIAN : 1815-1918• YUGOSLAV :1918-1992• CROATIAN : 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 metal-unlike “silver” before]]

• CAPE OF GOOD HOPE AND DECLINE(1575-1750)• BRIEF REVIVAL PERIOD (1750-1806)• POST-REPUBLIC PERIOD ( 1806-present)

FOUNDATIONAL PERIODRAGUSA 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.3,4- CONSISTENT 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

%SHAREOF TOTAL

BULDINGS PER CENTURY

Foundational PeriodTo 1100

5 10 1.25

Silver Period1100-1350

13 25 5.2

Golden Years1350-1575

20 39 8.9

Cape Hope ,Gradual Decline:1575-1750

8 16 4.6

Revival Interlude1775-1806

0 0 0

Post-Independence1806-1900

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

Sharp growth of the fleet size in the Golden

Years

The end of the Golden Period

Revival interlude

In 1575 the shipping tonnage reaches its peak- coincides with the END of the Golden Period

• 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

At the peak years, size and capacity of the fleet equaled

Venice or even UK, the latter

picking up strongly

immediately afterwards

• However, a decline in GDP already as of y.1500

Tonnage as a proxy for economic activity