The Medieval Origin of the Factory or the Institutional Foundations of Overseas Trade: Toward a Model for Global Comparison.

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  • Author(s): Sicking, Louis
  • Source:
    Journal of World History. Jun2020, Vol. 31 Issue 2, p295-326. 32p.
  • Additional Information
    • Subject Terms:
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    • Abstract:
      The aim of this article is threefold. First, it argues in favor of continuity into the early modern world overseas of the institutional family of trading stations around the medieval Mediterranean. The Portuguese feitoria represents a "missing link" between the medieval funduq and fondaco and the early modern factory overseas. Second, it puts the supposed "colonialistic" nature of early modern trading stations overseas in perspective by comparing these stations with their medieval counterparts around the Mediterranean and the Black Sea on the one hand and by showing that early modern factories more often than not could be founded and exist only thanks to some sort of recognition by local powers. Finally, it offers a functional model for global comparison of trading stations which allows to cross existing temporal and spatial divides, mainly those between medieval and early modern historiography and between the study of trading stations around the Mediterranean and those in the rest of Africa, Asia, and America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]