Il Consolato del mare di Barcellona: tribunale e corporazione di mercanti (1394-1462)

This work finds place in a rich historiographical background, arisen during the last thirty years about the reexamination of the economic-political connection in the history of the Euro-Mediterranean pre-industrial economic development. As the title suggests, this study analyses an institute ignored, however well known, by historians until today (except for philological and juridical studies), the Sea Consulate of Barcelona. I tried to retrace its habitual activity during the XV Century, through the laborious search of any document produced by the court and the trade guild, kept in five different city institutions. Regarding to the judicial purpose, I focused especially on the procedure and, for archival reasons, even more on the jurisdictional disputes. Concerning to the guild’s unexplored aspects, I tried to reconstruct the operating principles of the administrative body (the merchants’ council), the evolution of roles and guild’s objectives. The evaluation of the Consulate role within the city (that is the relationship with any municipal office), of its connection with the king’s court and his officials, pertinent to the war and diplomacy funding, was the key. The ambition, through results, was to put the accent on the profit defence strategies of the commercial and maritime branch during the late Middle Ages, and, also as a result, on the role of the institutions, the treasury and the war within the Crown of Aragon, and therefore, in a general meaning, on the relations between merchant wealth and politics in the XV Century in Barcelona.