Breaking boundaries. Florentine merchants and the Atlantic (15th-16th centuries)

Traditionally we tend to represent the European ‘expansion’ as the sum of great ‘national’ enterprises. Newer or older national states – albeit also attempting to undermine their rivals’ monopolies – chose a destination of preference, where they were trying to hold control. The Italian peninsula (and the territorial entities that formed it) were seemingly left out of this game. However Italian merchants – and in particular Genoese and Florentines – did participate, with financial, technical and human capital. Therefore, despite it would be misleading to talk of a Genoese or a Florentine ‘expansion’ (let alone an Italian ‘expansion’), there is no doubt that these businessmen played a relevant role. This paper will mainly focus on Florentine merchant-bankers. In the increasingly globalised world of the early modern period, it would be wrong to define Florence as a global city or to talk of global Tuscany. However, there is no doubt that there were many ‘global Florentines’ who crossed boundaries, moving from one ‘empire’ to the other and shifting capitals that they were able to raise from different sources, also involving investors not belonging to the mercantile world.