In memoriam Laurent Waelkens (1953-2020)

By chance, I ran into San Giorgio […] when I happened to notice in the Corsican maquis a range of plants which had reverted to a state of wilderness. Those plants belonged to Constantinople's staple products: sugar cane, cotton, pistachio, Indian chestnuts, indigo plants, and also the typical mastic tree from Chios and the Oriental mulberry tree used for breeding silkworms. (In 1453, the silk industry kicked off in Lyons). It also struck me that during the same period, malaria broke out in the plain of Aleria. (The disease was only eradicated by the Americans in 1943). Malaria suggested irrigation, and therefore the culture of cotton or rice. Corsica had belonged to Genoa. I therefore sought to find out who the Genoese were who had imported Eastern trade there. That was the thread that led me to the Banco San Giorgio. © Tijdschrift Koninklijke voor BrillRechtsgeschied NV, Leiden, 2020