Maritime Economy and Seafarers: Cabotage Navigation and Coasters in the Western Mediterranean (17th – 19th Centuries)

17 December 2015. From 18:30 | Conference | French | IEMed, Barcelona

Under the influence of the expansion of international trade that Europe developed since the 16th century, interested historians in maritime activities have greatly favored the study of long-range traffic, large port cities, and distant exchanges. After a few years, in re-evaluating the role of the Mediterranean in the European economy in the modern era (16th-18th centuries), researchers have been sensitive to areas that were previously considered marginal: small ports, small shipyards, seafarers and cabotage people. This type of navigation that has been neglected for a long time is therefore one of the keys to the success of transoceanic adventures and the economic core of coastal societies. Traffic in the western Mediterranean is certainly a priority in this seminar, all taking into account the Ottoman and Arab worlds.

Gilbert Buti is a professor of Modern History at the University of Aix-Marseille and a researcher at the Mediterranean House of Human Sciences (TELEMME-Aix-en-Provence). He specializes in maritime economics and coastal societies in the Mediterranean in modern times: trade, trade personalities and cabotage. He holds a PhD in History (Ecole en Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris). Among his latest academic contributions: Des côtes savantes? Les “travaux extraordinaires” (en “Le lieu et le moment. Mélanges en l’honneur d’Alain Cabantous”, Isabelle Brian, ed., 2015) and “Femmes d’affaires maritimes en France méditerranéenne au XVIIe siècle” (2015).