PhD Program in Historical studies
The Genoese in the port of Cadiz in the seventeenth century
The presence of the Genoese in the Iberian Peninsula is attested to since medieval times, when the Republic of Genoa was a maritime power capable of giving rise to different trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast. The interest of the Catholic Monarchs in giving life to the empire of the Indies meant that a large number of merchants in Liguria with extensive experience in finance and foreign trade settled in Castile. Whole families of the Genoese aristocracy, whose members became important bankers and merchants, began to move not only to Castile, but also to the major ports of the peninsula such as Cadiz, Seville or Valencia, controlling, in this way, both Mediterranean trade that one towards the Americas. In 1528, by means of the CondottaThe Condotta was an agreement concluded in 1528 between Emperor Charles V and Andrea Doria, who established a relationship of dependency between the Republic of Genoa and the Spanish Monarchy. The latter undertook to provide military protection to Genoa in exchange for economic aid from the Republic of San Giorgio, the empire of Charles V began to exert its protection over the Republic of Genoa, also protecting it militarily and thereby initiating a close and lasting relationship between Genoa and Spain during the so-called siglo de los genoveses. In exchange for the continuous loans to the Crown, the Genoese obtained extensive privileges in trade with the American colonies. Little by little, the Genoese asentistas gained an ever greater role in Philip II‘s system of finances, coming to occupy more and more relevant places in the Spanish court from service to the monarch and marriage alliances with important Spanish families. The Baroque age, however, marked the decline of Genoese bankers in Spain, especially after the bankruptcy of 1627In 1627 the Spanish Monarchy decreed the suspension of payments to its creditors. The relationship between the Republic of Genoa and Madrid began to falter: the Catholic King was no longer able to militarily defend Genoa, nor were the Genoese bankers willing to pay large sums of money to the Spanish Crown., which showed the lack of solvency of the Spanish economy. It was then that in the Iberian Peninsula, the Genoese had to cede to the domination of the Bank of Exchange of AmsterdamThe Exchange Bank of Amsterdam was created in 1609 and established itself as one of the most important business centres of the north of Europe. Its birth and development were linked to the fortunes of the Dutch East India Company. Both bodies disappeared in the early nineteenth century., which was converted into the main source of loans on the continent. In addition, there was also the decline of the Atlantic port of Seville, due to the decline in trade with the Americas, and the rise of major commercial companies rivals like the Dutch Company or the British East India Company. Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, Ligurian merchants and bankers changed strategies, abandoning trade with the Americas in favor of the Italian possessions of the Spanish Monarchy, which became important primarily as grain and silk traders. Much of the Genoese colony of residents moved from Seville to Cadiz (picture: the port of Cadiz), devoting themselves to trade of a different scope that looked to Italy. And it is precisely in Cadiz where the traces of the Baroque past of the Genoese nation are to be found.