Periodic Reporting for period 3 - AveTransRisk (Average - Transaction Costs and Risk Management during the First Globalization (Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries))
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2020-07-01 al 2021-12-31
AveTransRisk is dedicated to the study of maritime risk management in late medieval and early modern Europe. It focuses on analyzing the development of historical institutions, and their impact on economic development, through the comparative investigation of a specific legal instrument – general average (GA) – which still underpins maritime trade by redistributing damages’ costs across all interested parties. ‘Averages’ are a particularly interesting legal instrument for commercial risk management, not just for their resilience over centuries (they are known since Antiquity) but especially as they are mutual in nature, thus they avoided the speculative element which has underpinned insurance since their creation. The mutualistic element makes their study particularly topical today, as the current crisis of the Anglo-American model of capitalist economic development is fostering interest in different approaches and solutions.
The preliminary results of the project are confirming, and if anything, strengthening, the original hypothesis about the deep roots of intra-European institutional diversity, provide further evidence of the developments of different paths of economic development across Europe, with important contemporary repercussions for both the understanding, and the future developments of European economy/ies. This is also allowing a reassessment of the different legal frameworks underpinning economic development in different European regions, another issue with important contemporary impact.
From the scientific perspective the preliminary results of the project point in the direction of the long-term resilience of alternative credit and risk-management structures and institutions, whose study has been neglected as they are not in line with the standard and classic narrative of economic development, which has been shaped by the Anglo-American experience.
The aims of the project remain as stated originally, namely to contribute to several current historiographical debates for the early modern period:
a) The comparative history of European economic and legal developments, analysed through the distribution of transaction costs across the maritime business cycle, thus contributing to the debate on the relative efficiency of the maritime sector in different European states, through the study of a ‘non‐market’ phenomenon such as GA.
b) The articulation between private commercial enterprise and state intervention in several European states (republics of Venice and Genoa, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, United Provinces, Spanish Netherlands, Spain and France); and the relative performance of Italian states’ maritime sectors.
c) The history of comparative legal institutions in Europe and the development of international commercial law, especially regarding the vexed issue of the possible existence of pan‐ European maritime and commercial law systems (lex maritima and lex mercatoria).
d) The development of private and public institutions connected with the evaluation and management of risk, and their role in the North‐South economic divergence in Europe.
e) The status of foreigners in early modern commercial courts, and the balance between formal and informal resolution of controversies.
The project is delivering consistent and considerable datasets on maritime trade that will be made freely available online through the website of the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies (CMHS) at the University of Exeter.
The project is genuinely a blue sky one, pioneering the comparative investigation of an exceedingly resilient legal instrument, which has been woefully understudied until now. On its quantitative side, we do not yet have a critical mass of data which allows us to draw final results, although for some specific case studies this analysis will be part of the edited volume under production. The majority of outputs are scheduled for the second half of the project timeline, so it is not possible to answer this point as described above. The project will certainly produce important revisionist analyses of European late medieval and early modern trade. At this moment, three strands are emerging as particularly promising in terms of results:
a) The divergence of procedures, between different jurisdictions is emerging as strongly as hypothesized in the original project proposal, and this is provide further evidence of the different paths of economic development across Europe, with important contemporary repercussions for both the understanding, and the future developments of European economy/ies. This is also allowing a reassessment of the different legal frameworks underpinning economic development in different European regions, another issue with important contemporary impact.
b) The data being collected is extremely rich in providing detailed prices for commodities in the early modern period, but also costs of labour and ‘maritime’ manufactures – as in the original proposal. It is also proving to be extremely useful in the reconstruction of commercial networks in Europe and, for the Iberian case, in the Atlantic as well. This will contribute to the new scholarly which is given globally to the creation and resilience of such networks.
c) The analysis of GA is also providing exceedingly promising new evidence of the resilience of ‘sea loans’, a medieval credit mechanism with elements of proto-insurance, which the scholarly literature states had disappeared by the sixteenth century, which is patently not the case. This evidence, paired with the previous point, will allow for a thorough reassessment of the development of alternative credit and protection mechanisms over the early modern period.
The preliminary results of the project are confirming, and if anything, strengthening, the original hypothesis about the deep roots of intra-European institutional diversity, provide further evidence of the developments of different paths of economic development across Europe, with important contemporary repercussions for both the understanding, and the future developments of European economy/ies. This is also allowing a reassessment of the different legal frameworks underpinning economic development in different European regions, another issue with important contemporary impact.
From the scientific perspective the preliminary results of the project point in the direction of the long-term resilience of alternative credit and risk-management structures and institutions, whose study has been neglected as they are not in line with the standard and classic narrative of economic development, which has been shaped by the Anglo-American experience.
The aims of the project remain as stated originally, namely to contribute to several current historiographical debates for the early modern period:
a) The comparative history of European economic and legal developments, analysed through the distribution of transaction costs across the maritime business cycle, thus contributing to the debate on the relative efficiency of the maritime sector in different European states, through the study of a ‘non‐market’ phenomenon such as GA.
b) The articulation between private commercial enterprise and state intervention in several European states (republics of Venice and Genoa, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, United Provinces, Spanish Netherlands, Spain and France); and the relative performance of Italian states’ maritime sectors.
c) The history of comparative legal institutions in Europe and the development of international commercial law, especially regarding the vexed issue of the possible existence of pan‐ European maritime and commercial law systems (lex maritima and lex mercatoria).
d) The development of private and public institutions connected with the evaluation and management of risk, and their role in the North‐South economic divergence in Europe.
e) The status of foreigners in early modern commercial courts, and the balance between formal and informal resolution of controversies.
The project is delivering consistent and considerable datasets on maritime trade that will be made freely available online through the website of the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies (CMHS) at the University of Exeter.
The project is genuinely a blue sky one, pioneering the comparative investigation of an exceedingly resilient legal instrument, which has been woefully understudied until now. On its quantitative side, we do not yet have a critical mass of data which allows us to draw final results, although for some specific case studies this analysis will be part of the edited volume under production. The majority of outputs are scheduled for the second half of the project timeline, so it is not possible to answer this point as described above. The project will certainly produce important revisionist analyses of European late medieval and early modern trade. At this moment, three strands are emerging as particularly promising in terms of results:
a) The divergence of procedures, between different jurisdictions is emerging as strongly as hypothesized in the original project proposal, and this is provide further evidence of the different paths of economic development across Europe, with important contemporary repercussions for both the understanding, and the future developments of European economy/ies. This is also allowing a reassessment of the different legal frameworks underpinning economic development in different European regions, another issue with important contemporary impact.
b) The data being collected is extremely rich in providing detailed prices for commodities in the early modern period, but also costs of labour and ‘maritime’ manufactures – as in the original proposal. It is also proving to be extremely useful in the reconstruction of commercial networks in Europe and, for the Iberian case, in the Atlantic as well. This will contribute to the new scholarly which is given globally to the creation and resilience of such networks.
c) The analysis of GA is also providing exceedingly promising new evidence of the resilience of ‘sea loans’, a medieval credit mechanism with elements of proto-insurance, which the scholarly literature states had disappeared by the sixteenth century, which is patently not the case. This evidence, paired with the previous point, will allow for a thorough reassessment of the development of alternative credit and protection mechanisms over the early modern period.
Team recruitment:
a) 4 PhDs recruited, 3 started in October 2017 and 1 in January 2018;
b) 1 post-doc working on Spain, recruited Summer 2018 for 48 months at 48.9% FTE
c) 1 additional post-doc on Malta, recruited March 2019 for 12 months FT
d) IT officer, recruited from Jan 2018
Database:
1) Data capture version on Access (offline), personalised for each geographical area - completed, still being tweaked as data analysis progresses
2) Public-facing version Python (online), under continuous development; current version being tested within the team and by specialists.
Collection of primary evidence:
completed for most team members: Andrea Addobbati (SVF); Dave De ruysscher (SVF); Sabine Go (SVF); Giada Pizzoni (Malta); Ana Maria Rivera Medina (SVF); Guido Rossi (SVF);
still to be completed for Maria Fusaro (PI); Giovanni Ceccarelli (SVF); Gijs Dreijer (PhD); Jake Dyble (PhD); Marta Garcia Garralon (PostDoc); Antonio Iodice (PhD); Lewis Wade (PhD);
Outputs :
Maria Fusaro, ‘The Burden of Risk: Early Modern Maritime Enterprise and Varieties of Capitalism’, Business History Review, at the moment on 'First view', forthcoming in the monographic issue on Italy and the Origins of Capitalism (Spring 2020)
Guido Rossi, 'The liability of the shipmaster in early modern law: comparative (and practice-oriented) remarks', 12 (2017) Historia et Ius, n.12 OA in the website of Edinburgh University:
7e394a6a-239a-4d14-9355-766a91814f9a.html
Guido Rossi, ‘The Barratry of the Shipmaster in Early Modern Law: polysemy and mos italicus’, 87(1) (2019) Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis, 65-85
Guido Rossi, ‘The Barratry of the Shipmaster in Early Modern Law: The Approach of Italian and English Law Courts’, 87(2) (2019) Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis, 504-574
Gijs P. Dreijer & O. Vervaart, ‘Een tractaet van avarien – 1617’, Pro Memorie, 21, 2 (2019): 37-41
Luisa Piccinno and Antonio Iodice have produced a guide to the Genoese documentation on General Average for the early modern period. This explains the wealth of material present in Genoa, and how the original paper cards created by Giuseppe Felloni were used as the basis for the Database design.
a) 4 PhDs recruited, 3 started in October 2017 and 1 in January 2018;
b) 1 post-doc working on Spain, recruited Summer 2018 for 48 months at 48.9% FTE
c) 1 additional post-doc on Malta, recruited March 2019 for 12 months FT
d) IT officer, recruited from Jan 2018
Database:
1) Data capture version on Access (offline), personalised for each geographical area - completed, still being tweaked as data analysis progresses
2) Public-facing version Python (online), under continuous development; current version being tested within the team and by specialists.
Collection of primary evidence:
completed for most team members: Andrea Addobbati (SVF); Dave De ruysscher (SVF); Sabine Go (SVF); Giada Pizzoni (Malta); Ana Maria Rivera Medina (SVF); Guido Rossi (SVF);
still to be completed for Maria Fusaro (PI); Giovanni Ceccarelli (SVF); Gijs Dreijer (PhD); Jake Dyble (PhD); Marta Garcia Garralon (PostDoc); Antonio Iodice (PhD); Lewis Wade (PhD);
Outputs :
Maria Fusaro, ‘The Burden of Risk: Early Modern Maritime Enterprise and Varieties of Capitalism’, Business History Review, at the moment on 'First view', forthcoming in the monographic issue on Italy and the Origins of Capitalism (Spring 2020)
Guido Rossi, 'The liability of the shipmaster in early modern law: comparative (and practice-oriented) remarks', 12 (2017) Historia et Ius, n.12 OA in the website of Edinburgh University:
7e394a6a-239a-4d14-9355-766a91814f9a.html
Guido Rossi, ‘The Barratry of the Shipmaster in Early Modern Law: polysemy and mos italicus’, 87(1) (2019) Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis, 65-85
Guido Rossi, ‘The Barratry of the Shipmaster in Early Modern Law: The Approach of Italian and English Law Courts’, 87(2) (2019) Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis, 504-574
Gijs P. Dreijer & O. Vervaart, ‘Een tractaet van avarien – 1617’, Pro Memorie, 21, 2 (2019): 37-41
Luisa Piccinno and Antonio Iodice have produced a guide to the Genoese documentation on General Average for the early modern period. This explains the wealth of material present in Genoa, and how the original paper cards created by Giuseppe Felloni were used as the basis for the Database design.
Given how little has been published on this topic, is it somewhat difficult to define what 'state of the art' is in terms of benchmark to compare our own progress.
In terms of research and progress in line with the original plans, the results have been excellent. All original hypothesis are proving correct in terms of the importance and resilience of mutual risk management instruments and their distribution in the maritime sector. The operational convergence between different European regions has been confirmed, and the hypothesized differences in jurisdictional reach of different states have emerged even more powerfully than originally posited.
The issue of ‘translation’ not only between different languages but also between legal systems, was flagged already in the project proposal as another crucial element of our analysis, and was the topic of our second project workshop (see 1.3). The importance of this element has massively increased as the archival data is collected and analysed. For the first time, we are systematically and comparatively analysing a legal instrument – average – which has been central to maritime trade since Antiquity. Combining the comparative element, with the challenges of translations between both languages and legal systems, and with the complex polysemy of the term ‘average’ itself, has confronted us with a particularly heavy responsibility in careful and stringent internal peer reviewing of all outputs, as our publications will be for all intent and purposes establishing a new field of investigation.
The blue sky nature of the project shaped it to have outputs planned for the second half of its lifespan. At the moment we are preparing the edited volume which shall present our preliminary findings. The preparation of this volume is proving particularly complex and time-consuming, for the reasons mentioned above.
In terms of research and progress in line with the original plans, the results have been excellent. All original hypothesis are proving correct in terms of the importance and resilience of mutual risk management instruments and their distribution in the maritime sector. The operational convergence between different European regions has been confirmed, and the hypothesized differences in jurisdictional reach of different states have emerged even more powerfully than originally posited.
The issue of ‘translation’ not only between different languages but also between legal systems, was flagged already in the project proposal as another crucial element of our analysis, and was the topic of our second project workshop (see 1.3). The importance of this element has massively increased as the archival data is collected and analysed. For the first time, we are systematically and comparatively analysing a legal instrument – average – which has been central to maritime trade since Antiquity. Combining the comparative element, with the challenges of translations between both languages and legal systems, and with the complex polysemy of the term ‘average’ itself, has confronted us with a particularly heavy responsibility in careful and stringent internal peer reviewing of all outputs, as our publications will be for all intent and purposes establishing a new field of investigation.
The blue sky nature of the project shaped it to have outputs planned for the second half of its lifespan. At the moment we are preparing the edited volume which shall present our preliminary findings. The preparation of this volume is proving particularly complex and time-consuming, for the reasons mentioned above.