ABSTRACT

This chapter introduces the Ragusan Republic, especially those (geo)political factors that facilitated its rise to commercial importance. It provides an overview of Ragusan maritime trade in the late medieval and early modern period, sketching its development, main routes and trade commodities. The chapter discusses the ways in which that network functioned, outlining its protagonists, organizational forms and institutions. The fact that the Renaissance English developed such a strong associative link between a distant Mediterranean republic and maritime trade testifies to the importance of the Ragusan mercantile network. The crucial macroeconomic role that Ragusa acquired in the second half of the fourteenth and in the fifteenth centuries was that of mediator between the Balkans and Western Europe. Balkan goods reached Ragusa via land routes and were then loaded on ships and transported to the West, usually to Italian ports such as Ancona, Venice and the cities of South Italy and Sicily.