著者

鴨野 洋一郎

出版者

公益財団法人史学会

雑誌

史學雜誌 (ISSN:00182478)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.122, no.2, pp.188-211, 2013-02-20

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It was in the late fifteenth century that the city of Florence began trading with the Ottoman Empire on the basis of friendly diplomatic relations, mainly selling Florentine woolens and silks and buying Oriental goods. Medium-sized Florentine woolen makers played an important role in this trade. These companies took part in international commerce as "trading manufacturers", that is, both producing woolens then selling them in the Ottoman Empire, but on a more restricted scale than the largest companies had ever done. It became indispensable for the costs incurred in this trade to be stable and predictable in order that such companies could continue taking part in international trade. This paper focuses on the Guanti Wool Company already referred to by H. Hoshino. It sent Bartolomeo Guanti to Bursa as its agent in 1484 to initiate trade with the Ottoman Empire, selling garbo cloth and buying Persian raw silk. This company, which had sold more than a thousand bolts of cloth over more than ten years at Bursa, is one example of "trading manufacturers". The author of this paper has utilized Guanti, Co. ledgers and its agent's account book in researching the facts surrounding its Ottoman trade during the 1480's, mainly from the point of view of costs incurred, dividing them into three categories... 1) transportation costs of woolens, 2) costs incurred at Bursa and 3) import charges for Persian raw silk... and analyzing the ratios of each cost to sales figures. From this analysis it is evident that the ratios of costs incurred in the Ottoman trade were stable and their compositions almost predictable. The risks involved in trade, shipwrecks and theft, could be reduced by means of insurance and legal statutes. This characteristic feature of the Ottoman trade made the Guanti, Co. a medium-sized wool company acting in the role of a "trading manufacturer", as shown by concrete data of such activities of the company.