El comercio en el Mediterráneo español durante la edad moderna: del estudio del tráfico a su vinculación con la realidad productiva y el contexto social

Abstract

This paper goes through the recent historiography production related to the Spanish Mediterranean trade during the early modern period. Apart from the traditional study of the shipping, it is remarkable the need of integrating in the analysis its connexion with the production activity, the relationships between the several markets operating, and the composition and characteristics of the social group which was working in the trade. The results obtained are summed up distinguishing between the initial phase, when the shipping was more vinculated to the Mediterranean area, and its progressive integration in the principal routes of the Atlantic trade from around the middle of the seventeenth century.