MERCHANTS OF LAST RESORT? JEWS AND WHEAT TRADE IN THE ADRIATIC (18TH CENTURY)

The article intends to analyze the role of Jewish merchants in the grain trade in the Mediterranean area of the eighteenth century, with a focus on the case of the Papal States and the middle Adriatic Sea. The starting question is the following: is it possible to identify (if there are any) specific elements, connected to the characteristics of a discriminated minority, which connect the Jewish mercantile network and the trade in cereals and food products in general? The ability to circulate information and goods is a determining factor, not only for Jewish merchants; equally central appears to be the ability to establish relationships with local authorities, which are essential for obtaining licenses, concessions and orders. Specific to the Jewish world, on the other hand, is the context of political and religious limitations and discrimination exercised by the authorities of the respective territories. Rather, the arrival of emergency conditions, dictated by famines or war events, such as the passage of troops, seems to constitute a terrain in which some of the main Jewish merchants of the State managed to activate the relational and economic resources necessary to supply the cities of the cereals necessary for the survival of populations.