Final Report Summary - LUPE (Sailing into Modernity: Comparative Perspectives on the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century European Economic Transition)
LUPE’s goal was to provide a new analysis of the economic transition in early modern Europe, through an interdisciplinary approach employing tools from legal, economic and social history, for a comparative assessment of the legal position and the economic treatment of sailors active in the Mediterranean. The project was designed around the assumption that the early modern maritime sector is the earliest example of an international labour market, and that it therefore represents the perfect case study for the analysis of the transition between Mediterranean and Northern European commercial capitalism.
The project met and exceeded its original objectives. We have positively answered the central question behind the project, namely that the contractual conditions of northern crews did provide a comparative advantage to Anglo-Dutch merchants entering the Mediterranean. We have also established how the English legislative response to controversies centred on maritime employment provided a blueprint which was then employed later towards wage labourers in general at the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Our work has established how the jurisdictional landscape concerning wages (and wage litigation) was in reality substantially more complex than previously acknowledged, and we have created a considerable - larger than expected - DataBase of wage figures which shall be made freely available to the public in the coming months.
At the same time, we have also uncovered a surprising resilience of small-scale entrepreneurial activities by ships’ crews, an important, and hitherto neglected, factor in reconstructing economic activities at the lower social levels of early modern European society.
Our research has also proven a direct connection between seamen's litigation in the Mediterranean and legislative developments in northern Europe (especially in England) regarding governments' attempts to expand their jurisdictional reach, and to control the economic activities of their own subjects beyond state boundaries, something which enhances our understanding of the modalities of the birth of European ‘modern’ states.
Our results have substantially increased knowledge on the differences and relationship between commercial and industrial capitalism in northern and southern Europe, and conclusively proven the importance of studying legal economic institutions in Europe through a comparative approach. At the same time, informal methods of accommodation between parties are emerging as powerful and understudied aspects of such disputes, even when judicial courts were involved. Our results are already directly influencing the work of other research teams (such as the ERC Advanced Grant led by Wolfgang Kaiser - ConfigMed) and will drive developments in the present debate on the supposed existence of a pan-European lex mercatoria, the existence of which is seriously questioned by our work.
Our research results also help towards a reassessment and re-evaluation of the role of consular representatives in commercial enterprises, especially by focusing on their dual role vis-á-vis both individual merchants and their states of origin. In particular, the jurisdictional privileges granted to consuls appear to have been weaker than thought in the past.
These discoveries strengthen the original hypothesis regarding the importance of studying economic activities through the development of legal institutions, and the crucial role played by the practices of civil courts – as opposed to the jurisprudence – on the early modern development of international commercial law. On this issue we believe that our final results will provide an important contribution to ongoing historiographical debates.
The project met and exceeded its original objectives. We have positively answered the central question behind the project, namely that the contractual conditions of northern crews did provide a comparative advantage to Anglo-Dutch merchants entering the Mediterranean. We have also established how the English legislative response to controversies centred on maritime employment provided a blueprint which was then employed later towards wage labourers in general at the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Our work has established how the jurisdictional landscape concerning wages (and wage litigation) was in reality substantially more complex than previously acknowledged, and we have created a considerable - larger than expected - DataBase of wage figures which shall be made freely available to the public in the coming months.
At the same time, we have also uncovered a surprising resilience of small-scale entrepreneurial activities by ships’ crews, an important, and hitherto neglected, factor in reconstructing economic activities at the lower social levels of early modern European society.
Our research has also proven a direct connection between seamen's litigation in the Mediterranean and legislative developments in northern Europe (especially in England) regarding governments' attempts to expand their jurisdictional reach, and to control the economic activities of their own subjects beyond state boundaries, something which enhances our understanding of the modalities of the birth of European ‘modern’ states.
Our results have substantially increased knowledge on the differences and relationship between commercial and industrial capitalism in northern and southern Europe, and conclusively proven the importance of studying legal economic institutions in Europe through a comparative approach. At the same time, informal methods of accommodation between parties are emerging as powerful and understudied aspects of such disputes, even when judicial courts were involved. Our results are already directly influencing the work of other research teams (such as the ERC Advanced Grant led by Wolfgang Kaiser - ConfigMed) and will drive developments in the present debate on the supposed existence of a pan-European lex mercatoria, the existence of which is seriously questioned by our work.
Our research results also help towards a reassessment and re-evaluation of the role of consular representatives in commercial enterprises, especially by focusing on their dual role vis-á-vis both individual merchants and their states of origin. In particular, the jurisdictional privileges granted to consuls appear to have been weaker than thought in the past.
These discoveries strengthen the original hypothesis regarding the importance of studying economic activities through the development of legal institutions, and the crucial role played by the practices of civil courts – as opposed to the jurisprudence – on the early modern development of international commercial law. On this issue we believe that our final results will provide an important contribution to ongoing historiographical debates.