Bartolomeo Marchionni and the Trade in African Slaves in the Mediterranean World at the End of Fifteenth Century

Bartolomeo Marchionni was a Florentine merchant who was active in Lisbon from 1470 to c. 1530. In the 1480s and 90s he obtained a lease for the importation of slaves from the Senegambia region to Lisbon; at that point he was the most important trader of African slaves. Only a share of the slaves were sold on Lisbon’s local market, however: many were sent to other areas of the Iberian peninsula, in particular to Valencia (where Marchionni’s correspondent, Cesare Barzi, dominated the market), and Seville; Bartolomeo also sent some female slaves to Florence. By studying his commercial activities it is possible not only to follow the strategies pursued by the Portuguese Crown in managing its monopoly over the African trade at the end of the fifteenth century, but also to highlight Portugal’s growing importance in European commercial networks.