Frauds
orms, institutions and illegal economic practices in Mediterranean Europe (16
th-19
thcenturies)
International workshop
University of Basel, 28-29 September 2012
ABSTRACT BOOK
Research &etwork
Aux bords des institutions
Pouvoirs, acteurs et pratiques marchandes dans l’Europe méditerranéenne (XVIIe-XIXe siècle)
Table of contents
Andrea Addobbati: égociants et gamblers. Les polices spéculatives « interest or not interest » et le commerce franco-caribéen durant la guerre de Succession d’Autriche
3
Guillaume Calafat: Ramadam Fatet vs John Jucker. Un procès et un faux à Livourne en 1737
4
Georg Christ: False Labelling? Greek Wine, English Tariffs and Coping Mechanisms (16th-18th c.)
4
Christopher Denis-Delacour: Un pavillon et des Etats. L'exploitation marchande du pavillon pontifical face aux politiques mercantiles (XVIIIe siècle)
5
Ida Fazio: Fraud, Disputes and Contraband in Sicilian Corsairing (Stromboli, 1811) 6 Samuel Fettah: Lieux hors la loi. Une approche comparée des espaces de la fraude
en Méditerranée septentrionale (Sardaigne, Toscane, Corse, Provence) entre XVIIIe et XIXe siècle
7
Rita Loredana Foti: Judges and corsairs. The Sicilian Tribunale delle Prede (1794- 1813)
7
Maurizo Gangemi: Frauds on the Calabrian beach of Pietre ere. Players, practices and institutions (second half of the 18th century)
9
Silvia Marzagalli: Fraude et contrebande à l’époque napoléonienne. Le jeu complexe de définition et d’application des normes
10
Raffaella Salvemini: Santé maritime et fraudes dans le Royaume de aples (XVIIIe- XIXe siècles)
10
Stephan Karl Sander: Economic activities and practices between legal and social norms. Examples from Zadar (16th century)
12
Margrit Schulte Beerbühl: Trading with the enemy. Clandestine networks during the apoleonic Wars
13
Andrea Addobbati (Université de Pise)
égociants et gamblers. Les polices spéculatives « interest or not interest » et le commerce franco-caribéen durant la guerre de Succession d’Autriche
Au cours du XVIIIème siècle, le commerce des assurances maritimes ne cesse de croître, ponctué par des pics de croissance vertigineux à l’occasion des grandes guerres de l’époque.
Cette dynamique est à l’œuvre dans toutes les grandes places européennes, et elle contribue à consolider la pratique assurantielle chez les négociants, à perfectionner les appareils de contrôle juridico-institutionnel et à transformer profondément l’organisation de l'entreprise d’assurance. Selon toute apparence, le conflit anglo-français des années 1744-48 a constitué un tournant majeur dans l’évolution de ce marché. À l’issue de la guerre, les structures complexes de l’activité assurantielle furent, semble-t-il, remodelées par l’apparition de trois nouveautés : une intégration continentale plus étroite des différentes places, la naissance, dans la quasi-totalité de l’Europe, de grandes compagnies par actions, et l’émergence de la place de Londres – où quelques compagnies opéraient déjà dans les années ’20 – comme principal centre de coordination, au détriment d’Amsterdam. L’un des facteurs déterminants et décisifs de ce remodelage fut sans doute la spéculation des dernières années de la guerre, encouragées par les hautes taxes sur les assurances et par le gel du commerce extérieur français – tout particulièrement atlantique. Cette spéculation était surtout rendue possible par d’opportuns arrangements contractuels qui, de manière plus ou moins licite, permettaient de libérer le contrat, qui aurait dû avoir des finalités strictement indemnitaires, de l’exigence d’un intérêt en-dessous concret et déterminé. La bulle spéculative créée par les assurances « interest or not interest », autrement appelées « wager policies », a déjà été étudiée sous l’angle des initiatives législatives qui furent approuvées par le Parlement anglais pour en contenir les effets potentiellement destructeurs. Dans mon intervention, le même argument sera examiné du point de vue d’une place assurantielle de second rang, Livourne, pour tenter de mettre en lumière le réseau des collaborations – ou des collusions – qui transformèrent le marché européen des assurances en une grande maison de jeux.
Guillaume Calafat (Ecole Française de Rome)
Ramadam Fatet vs John Jucker. Un procès et un faux à Livourne en 1737
Je souhaiterais interroger dans cette communication la question de l’authenticité des témoignages écrits et oraux dans les tribunaux de commerce et les tribunaux maritimes de l’Ancien Régime. L’espace méditerranéen est, pour cela, un laboratoire intéressant, tant y coexistent des traditions juridiques multiples, en particulier à propos de la validité et de la validation légale des témoignages. À travers la remise en cause de l’authenticité d’une pièce produite lors d’un procès en 1737 – la fausse signature d’un marchand arabe – j’aimerais décrire au plus près les procédures de vérification qu’elle engage. Les acteurs appelés pour de telles vérifications, convoqués dans des lieux parfois fort éloignés, rallongent le temps du procès, tout en mettant à jour des alliances commerciales souvent masquées par les transactions réussies. La gravité de l’accusation de faux, à la frontière du commercial et du criminel, entraîne une enquête pointilleuse sur la personnalité des marchands et leur probité, ainsi que la description détaillée des étapes de la négociation marchande. Le faux agit en cela comme un véritable révélateur des cultures et des pratiques négociantes de l’époque moderne.
Georg Christ (University of Heidelberg)
False Labelling? Greek Wine, English Tariffs and Coping Mechanisms (16th-18th c.)
The paper shall argue 1) that fraud in the realm of tariffs (or more generally taxes) should be analysed in the context of legal othering of competitors, 2) that a historical investigation in practices of fraud shall not be limited to the episodic and social historical dimension but rather serve as a provider of correctors to economic history by offering a framework to assess the representative value of cliometric data based for instance on taxes; 3) that, more specifically, fraud is correlated with tariffs and other trade barriers. Fraud can thus be studied only in combination with tariffs/taxes (cf. Laffer curve).
These methodological claims shall be investigated through customs legislation regarding wine in the Mediterranean and the Northern Sea in the late 17th c. It shall be analyzed how England pushed for bans and punitive tariffs (of French wines for instance) and how this trade barriers were circumvented by techniques of fraud as wrongful declaration, smuggling etc. and how/whether fraud in all its shades would have jeopardized the efficiency of the enforced
trade barriers/the desired outcome. It shall be concluded by asking whether the results of this sketch force us to revise the quantitative and qualitative picture of English trade and trade policy of the period in question.
Christopher Denis-Delacour
(Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme, Aix-en-Provence)
Un pavillon et des Etats. L'exploitation marchande du pavillon pontifical face aux politiques mercantiles (XVIIIe siècle)
Comment concilier le manque de transporteurs 'nationaux' tout en proclamant une politique mercantile visant un commerce actif? Une équation socioéconomique à laquelle l'Etat pontifical fut confronté en y apportant une réponse institutionnelle. Au lieu d'une stimulation de la construction navale, et par manque de moyens étatiques, l'adéquation entre les aspirations mercantiles et la réalité pratique des échanges s'exprima au travers d'une politique pavillonnaire accueillante et en apparence peu couteuse. Une solution toutefois à double tranchant car en permettant au monde marchand d'agir aux marges des institutions et des normes romaines, l'interprétation de la fraude s'en trouva vidée de sa substance. Par exemple, la concession du ‘passaporto romano’ naturalisait automatiquement le capitaine avec de multiples avantages fiscaux. En résultait la contradiction d'une marine 'romaine' externe au territoire pontifical et fortement liée aux intérêts forestieri. Un commerce actif du point de vue des transporteurs mais souvent déficitaire au niveau commercial. Il n'était ainsi pas étonnant que les consuls romains en poste dans les ports étrangers demandèrent régulièrement qu’on leur accorde le droit de concéder le passeport pontifical, source d’influence et de pouvoir sur le plan des trafics. Le pavillon devint ainsi l'objet d'une spéculation marchande se déroulant sur plusieurs niveaux d'intermédiation. La communication se propose ainsi d'analyser comment les autorités comprirent le phénomène et cherchèrent à y mettre fin en renforçant les contrôles et en durcissant les conditions d’accès. L'interprétation d'une fraude 'institutionnalisée' par ceux qui l'instituèrent confronta en effet les producteurs de la norme à des acteurs économiques sachant utiliser au mieux les interstices juridiques mis à leur disposition. Si les réalités économiques dévoyèrent dans ce cas précis l'application des théories mercantilistes, les conséquences de ces errements politiques sur les activités maritimes romaines se ressentirent durement lors du renforcement normatif du siècle suivant.
Ida Fazio
(University of Palermo)
Fraud, Disputes and Contraband in Sicilian Corsairing (Stromboli, 1811)
During the Napoleonic Wars, the island of Stromboli served as the eastern bulwark of a Bourbon kingdom that had largely been reduced to Sicily. Stretching toward the coasts of Calabria, the Gulf of Salerno, and the islands of Ischia, Capri, and Procida - the western frontiers of the Kingdom of Naples held by Napoleonic creatures - Stromboli was a useful base for pirates who, furnished with Bourbon letters of mark, cruised the southern Tyrrhenian in search of prize-cargoes aboard Neapolitan ships. Their prizes were legitimated by the authority of the Prize Tribunal in Palermo, which received a tenth of their value, and auctioned off for the benefit of the “prize captains,” the investors and crew who participated in the venture. Analysis of the Judicial process prepared for the sale of goods taken by corsairs in the Island of Lipari (1811), together with many other documents related to conflicts, controversies, and contraband connected to piracy in Stromboli in this period, enables us to reconstruct the dense network of relations, economic interests, and complicity between corsairs, islanders, and agents of the Police or Health Board for defrauding the royal fisc and pursuing private interests amid the economic opportunities offered by corsairing. It is possible to bring to light the services provided by the men and women of Stromboli to corsairs (warehouse rentals, marketing and brokering for prize goods, credit, pilotage, hospitality, and laundry). Corsairing supplemented the customary channels of maritime commerce pursued by the local fleet and inhabited the same space in which men and goods normally circulated. There was thus a perfect integration between ordinary mercantile business and “adventure, exploration, hunting, piracy, and war” (as Polanyi would have it).
Samuel Fettah
(Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme, Aix-en-Provence)
Lieux hors la loi. Une approche comparée des espaces de la fraude en Méditerranée septentrionale (Sardaigne, Toscane, Corse, Provence) entre XVIIIe et XIXe siècle
Si les pratiques de fraude et de contrebande sont, dans la période considérée, assez diffuses, la plupart des sources dont nous disposons mettent en évidence leur présence, leur ampleur et leur permanence dans des espaces clairement désignés. Ces espaces sont souvent insulaires, ils peuvent être des portions de littoral (Nord de la Sardaigne), des villes (Livourne) ou même des ports de taille plus limitée (certains ports corses). Cette désignation peut déboucher sur une véritable stigmatisation qui vise plus précisément des groupes ethniques ou sociaux. Elle conduit à dessiner une carte d’espaces illégaux, échappant largement aux règles et à l’action des autorités. Mais qu’en est-il réellement ? Les représentants des différents pouvoirs en place ne sont pas absents de ces lieux et ils ne sont pas non plus inactifs. On tentera de montrer les limites et les contradictions de leur action contre la fraude, en mettant aussi en évidence, par la comparaison, les évolutions différentielles des espaces considérés.
Rita Loredana Foti (University of Palermo)
Judges and corsairs. The Sicilian Tribunale delle Prede (1794-1813)
In Sicily, the neo-mercantilist and jurisdictional project of constructing “public happiness”
together with the promotion of an “active commerce,” pursued (not without equivocations) by the Bourbon dynasty, saw the institution of special panels, delegations, or tribunals towards the end of the eighteenth century - years before the birth of a proper tribunal of commerce in the second decade of the nineteenth century. These bodies acted in at least two areas: the
“state-ification” of products and economic spaces till then private (a goal that encompassed everything from building ships to salt, tobacco, silk, customs offices, mines, and even corsairing) and their transformation into administrative places marked by “summary justice.”
That was the case for the Special Delegation for Maritime Prizes, afterwards simply the Prize Tribunal. Its activity, the object of my study, covers a brief (1794-1813) but significant period that transformed geopolitics in the Mediterranean, in which Sicily, a protectorate and principal military base of the English, played a fundamental role in the fight against Revolutionary France and Napoleonic Europe. The Prize Tribunal was one of the outcomes, at
once fragile and progressive, of the Enlightenment effort to include even the sea in the balancing games of eighteenth-century international politics. Here the classic distinction between dominium and imperium, so clearly reconstructed by Iorio, collapses into a continuum between ius belli, ius maris, and ius prede, visible in the exhaustive effort of the Bourbon government to codify its imperium over the sea through its laws and institutions, both old and new. One object that the Sicilian Tribunal regulated was the corsair activity legitimated by letters of mark and reprisal.
In this broad European context, the key principle was “toute prise doit etre jugée.” This rule responded to three needs: it served to verify the legitimacy of the capture, thus putting the belligerent beyond the danger of diplomatic disputes; it obligated the corsairs to subject themselves to state monitoring of their captures, and hence to disavow acts of piracy and to agree to turn over part of their haul to the royal fisc; and it permitted the acquisition of the prize as property of whoever effected the capture. In the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies administrative decisions over prizes were among the prerogatives of the government and figured among the law of war rather than international law. In Sicily this power was delegated to the Consultore del Governo, a body created to assist the viceroy in decisions about governance or justice, as a branch of the royal government but with a recognition of the quasi- judicial nature of its activities. The decisive moment occurred in 1808 with the institution of a proper Prize Tribunal with jurisdiction over all Sicilian ports. Composed of a judge and a commandant of the Royal Navy, it had to revolve delicate questions on both the judicial and the political levels, such as the licitness of a prize acquisition, its possible restitution, as well as its redistribution. It also dealt with technical matters such as the qualities of the wood, armament, or equipage. The Tribunal examined moreover the validity of the cruising licenses given to Sicilian corsairs, it attested the nationality of ships and transported goods, and it sold at public auction the captured merchandise, including slaves; in short, it certified whether a prize was just or not. The people who worked with the Tribunal were corsairing captains or mariners, the ships’ investors, those who purchased prizes, consuls, and various institutions.
The procedure that the Tribunal applied was that of summary justice.
The Prize Tribunal was an unstable point in the nexus between state norms anchored in wartime maritime law, maritime commercial law, the ius gentium, and the lex mercatoria;
between the practices of Neapolitan and Sicilian institutions (such as the Secretariat of State - Department of Maritime War and Commerce, the Tribunal of Commerce in Naples, the Panel of Mercantile Navigation, the Royal Office of the Dispensation of Maritime Patents, the Health Boards, various deputations of police and security, the sea consuls, etc.) and between the choices and economic logic of entrepreneurs. Through a careful readings of its papers (diplomatic or consular correspondence, judicial writings, notarial acts (company contracts, sales of prize goods), appraisals, equipage rolls, memoranda, prize certificates, ship diaries, patents and letters of mark, etc.), my research will analyze via a specific case study the relations between institutional and mercantile actors, the conflicts that emerged from commercial transactions, the fights over jurisdiction between various courts and offices, and the languages and practices of justice and diplomacy.
Maurizio Gangemi (University of Bari)
Frauds on the Calabrian beach of Pietre ere. Players, practices and institutions (second half of the 18th century)
Among the deeds held in the Palmi section of the State Archive of Reggio Calabria there is one that was drawn up in Gioia during the year 1797. It concerns a company formed by the Princes of Gerace and three private citizens for the lease of the “Jus Porti” of Rosarno, Gioia, Palmi and Pietre Nere. In the late 18th century along this whole stretch of the South Calabrian coast there was no natural bay or inlet, or even any purpose-built structure (such as a jetty or quay) that could remotely be called a “porto”. There were merely beaches (known as
“marine”, “scari” or “caricatoi”) off which sizable vessels could anchor so that goods could be loaded and unloaded with the help of small boats. However, this left them dangerously exposed to any changes in the weather. Despite these obvious difficulties, during the 18th century the beach at Pietre Nere became increasingly important in a Mediterranean trading area where, besides other goods, the main product was olive oil. Dealers were local proprietors, traders and boat owners, but there were also significant numbers of Ligurian traders. The final destination, besides Naples and Genoa, was Marseilles, which was at a greater distance. The present research aims to describe and better understand the mechanisms regulating the commercial exchange that brings this anomalous “porto” into contact with a much wider system of exchange. The activities and methods of individual agents, as well as the institutions appointed to regulate and manage it, will be examined in an attempt to understand the strategies and tactics which – for many decades – made it possible to increase profits and build up huge economic fortunes, even without following the usual norms and regulations. A cross study of the data from the abundant wealth of documents and deeds in Palmi, Seminara and Gioia Tauro, with those from the collected documents of law courts ranging from local Courts to the “Supremo Magistrato di Commercio” (based in Reggio Calabria) and even the tribunals in the Capital will be useful for this purpose.
Silvia Marzagalli (Université de &ice)
Fraude et contrebande à l’époque napoléonienne.
Le jeu complexe de définition et d’application des normes
Dans le cadre d’une guerre économique menée contre la Grande-Bretagne, la France adopte au cours de l’époque de la Révolution et de l’Empire un arsenal des dispositions commerciales et d’interdictions portant sur le commerce et la navigation. Si elles s’inscrivent en partie dans la continuité des dispositions adoptées au 18e siècle, l’époque se démarque néanmoins par l’ampleur de ces dispositions et par l’acharnement du gouvernement dans leur application. Parallèlement à un important travail de production normative, un dispositif administratif et policier impressionnant est mis en place pour assurer le contrôle des populations littorales, empêcher toute forme de fraude et contrebande, poursuivre durement les contrevenants. Toutefois, force est de constater que, en dépit de la volonté du législateur, des mécanismes de contournement de la norme se mettent en place. Orchestrés par les négociants, réalisés avec le concours massif de la population des ports, des îles et des littoraux, ces trafics illicites reposent aussi au quotidien sur une interaction entre fraudeurs et autorités préposées au contrôle de la fraude. Corruption, connivence, considération d’ordre public concourent ainsi à déjouer largement les interdictions qui portent sur le commerce. La communication se propose, à partir du cas de la Toscane napoléonienne, de retracer les grandes lignes de la question et de s’interroger tout particulièrement sur cette zone grise dans laquelle autorités et administrations locales se confrontent au négoce et aux populations locales, à la recherche d’accommodements raisonnables.
Raffaella Salvemini
(C&R - Istituto di Studi sulle Società del Mediterraneo, &apoli)
Santé maritime et fraudes dans le Royaume de aples (XVIIIe-XIXe siècles)
Nel corso del Settecento la sanità marittima si conferma una variabile importante negli scambi, influenzando politiche e trattati commerciali stipulati tra le varie potenze del Mediterraneo. La paura della peste impone un inevitabile confronto con le regole di trattamento imposte negli altri stati a uomini e merci pericolose, con i tempi di quarantena e con le tecniche di spurgo. Anche il Regno delle Due Sicilie, inserito nello scacchiere del Mediterraneo, si confronta con le misure intraprese negli altri stati per combattere i pericoli del contagio. L’adozione da parte del Regno di “regole di altri” non è mai automatica e anche
in periodi di epidemie, grande peso assumono lo strumento “arbitrario” del tempo e dello spazio rispettivamente per la contumacia e la provenienza della nave.
Carlo Antonio Broggia nel suo Trattato sulla sanità, si occupa del “mal difeso commercio”, messo a rischio da scarse ed inefficienti misure di controllo alle frontiere di mare. A tutela degli scambi e contro la peste il Broggia consigliava di: riformare il Magistrato di salute;
rivederne l’organico; vigilare attentamente sulle capacità e sulle competenze dei vari impiegati. Gli strumenti cui ispirarsi per una seria e sollecita politica di prevenzione urbana ed extra-urbana non erano mutati rispetto a quanto prescritto in passato: il modello era ancora quello suggerito da Ludovico Muratori e dalla Serenissima. A parere di Broggia la sicurezza del commercio e della salute erano in stretto rapporto con un corretto funzionamento dei lazzaretti e delle contumacie. Egli metteva l’accento sul rischio del “controbando di sanità” e invitava i governi a non respingere la nave sospettata di peste. La frode e il contrabbando di merce infetta, tramite una falsa fede di legittima pratica erano gli strumenti di cui serviva il padrone della nave per evitare la perdita totale del carico. L’autore è convinto che:
La sicurezza di esser governato (…) in un buon lazzaretto non mai gli farebbe commettere frode veruna. La qual benché è una strada per se stessa piena di male tanto per se quanto per altri; tuttavia è intrapresa dalla disperazione, per non soffrirsi l’indicibil miseria di perirsi in mare al ludibrio del morbo, della fame e de venti.
A influenzare il contrabbando e le frodi di sanità c’era anche il costo dei servizi. E’ ancora Carlo Antonio Broggia a richiamare l’attenzione su questo delicato tema. Egli consigliava di non caricare troppo le spese per la contumacia temendo che al “controbando di dogana” si unisse anche il “controbando di sanità” in quanto:
Deve anco in tutto procurarsi, che chi soccombe alle contumacie, spenda il men che si può e che sulle spese, né il privato né il pubblico abbia a farvi disegno di emolumento alcuno che anzi trattandosi del publico fa mestieri che vi rifonda. (...) Se altrimenti si stabilisce, e fondansi emolumenti sulle cose e sulle Persone che sono assoggettate alla Contumacia; puol nascere che qualche Bastimento, per l’avidità di scanzare la grave spesa pessimamente s’industri a procurar Fedi indirette o ad alterar le vere.
L’obiettivo del mio intervento è quello di illustrare il sistema delle frodi e del contrabbando di sanità in relazione a quanto realizzato dagli operatori commerciali ma anche dalle istituzioni responsabili dei controlli sanitari.
Stephan Karl Sander (University of Zürich)
Economic activities and practices between legal and social norms. Examples from Zadar (16th century)
The paper presents a selection of examples of ‘frauds’ centred on 16th-century Zadar / Zara, then the capital of Venice‘s Adriatic possessions in Albania and Dalmatia. While the wars of dominion in western Europe and Italy came to a close in the late 1550s, the Ottoman empire continued to threaten the Republic of St Mark. Yet, despite the importance of the period, only little scholarly attention has been focused on the period between the two wars of ‘holy leagues’ against the Ottomans from 1537 to 1540 and the Cyprus war in recent decades.
Split in two segments, the paper first provides a short overview of the early modern history of the Adriatic in general and the most important developments and events in Venetian Dalmatia in particular. The manifold changes introduced by the new suzerain after re-acquiring most cities and towns along the Adriatic oriental littoral in 1409 and the normative framework they established are at the centre of the argument. In the second, larger part selected examples from the rich notarial funds, preserved in the Croatian State Archive in Zadar (Državni arhiv u Zadru, DAZd) are presented; the sources are appointments of judges, court proceedings, and arbitration settlements from the period after the conclusion of peace in 1540 to the outbreak of the Cyprus war. It will be interesting to assess these cases in the light of comparable instances from other parts of the Mediterranean basin.
Margrit Schulte Beerbühl (University of Düsseldorf)
Trading with the enemy. Clandestine networks during the apoleonic Wars
About a hundred years ago the well-known German Historian Gustav Schmoller remarked that the history of the eighteenth-century trade was actually a history of smuggling. This statement applies especially to period of the Napoleonic wars, when a legal trade with the continent was hardly possible.
Since the late seventeenth century trade in Europe and beyond had become increasingly entangled in what may be called an early modern global trade. Masts, timber, bar iron naval stores, textiles and other commodities were shipped from the European continent including Russia to the New World and vice versa colonial goods shipped from the west to the east. In the early modern global trade the British capital had acquired a pivotal position as financial and economic emporium of the world. This world wide trade was organized and financed by the London merchant elite, two thirds of which were of continental descent.
The outbreak of the French and Napoleonic wars and ensuing embargos and blockades threatened these well-established global trading networks and supply chains. Britain’s rise in the eighteenth century had essentially been dependent on its ability to import vast amounts of goods like masts, timber, bar iron, naval stores, textiles and other commodities which it needed for its navy and industrialisation as well as its colonies. To keep up that trade despite the blockades the Britain resorted to the neutral powers, like the Dutch, the Americans or Danes to undermine the effects of the interruptions. The clandestine strategies to maintain the well-established supply chains led to a widespread collaboration across national borders.
The paper will delineate some of strategies which merchants resorted to, to organize to a secret trade involving even the governments of the two antagonists, Britain and France.
