Smugglers and innkeepers: physical and social mobility in early modern Gemona (fifteenth to seventeenth centuries)

2024/02/19 by Alessandro Di Bari · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #European Political History Analysis #Historical Economic and Social Studies #Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis

paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0963926824000038

openalex publication_date 2024/02/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the mechanics of Niederlech (a law that obliged merchants travelling between Germany and Italy to spend the night in the city, change wagons and pay a small sum of money) and German–Italian mobility in early modern Gemona. It argues that the fragility of Venetian institutions and a lack of German–Italian border controls set the scene for criminal activities, especially contraband, in which Gemona innkeepers appear to have played a significant part. It will also show that this illegal trafficking led to a new ruling class forming, a key factor in the city’s reorganization of social hierarchies.

Discussions

• 📣 New article on FirstView Alessandro Di Bari, 'Smugglers and innkeepers: physical and social mobility in early modern Gemona (fifteenth to seventeenth centuries)' 🔗 doi.org/10.1017/S096... [bsky, 2 points, 0 comments]

Related

• Worlds of Mobility: Migration Patterns of Viennese Artisans in the Eighteenth Century [1997]
• The "Public" and the "Private" in Sixteenth-Century Venice: From Medieval Economy to Early Modern State
• Fair rent and the production of an early modern city (Turin, first half of the eighteenth century)
• Military food supply in the Republic of Venice in the eighteenth century: Entrepreneurs, merchants, and the state
• Emotions at work: The emotional labour of professional diplomats in the early modern Venetian Republic