ABSTRACT
In a very short allusion to free ports, the prominent Neapolitan economist Antonio Genovesi dubbed them the “idol of all economists.” The remark illustrates without ambiguity the negative image that the holder of one of the first political economy chairs had on this peculiar institution. By the time the Neapolitan scholar wrote his Lezioni di comercio, free ports had come to be a century-long, highly mutable and extremely adaptable, multifaceted, and worth-emulating institution, which had been designed with the intent to promote international trade.
