ABSTRACT
Traditional approaches circumscribe the apogee of the great families of the Genoese oligarchy to the period known as the “Age of the Genoese” (c.1550s–1620s). When family histories are examined within this chronological framework, they implicitly anticipate a story of social and economic success followed by a period of decline beginning in the 1630s. This chapter offers a different perspective. It explores the example posed by the Grillo family to reveal how these families could flourish beyond the “Age of the Genoese,” and that, more generally, the Italian patriciate benefitted from the expansion of the Atlantic economy during the early modern period. These two processes frequently go unnoticed in the literature. During the 15th and 16th centuries, the Grillo family was in many ways relatively wealthy but not superlatively rich and had few political expectations. During the 17th century, several Genoese merchant-bankers witnessed the decline of their traditional businesses model. Faced with this scenario, the Grillos’ moved from investing in Mediterranean galleys to transatlantic trade. This strategy eventually allowed them to climb socially and to project their family as one of the most distinguished Italian lineages of the 18th century.
