Eastern Adriatic transit maritime trade between Mediterranean Asian ports and Ancona in the Croatian Maritime Regesta

Abstract

For centuries, due to its geographical position within the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic was a highly desirable and suitable maritime route for trade exchange between the East and the West. The key player on the Adriatic in the trade with the eastern Mediterranean, supplying goods in high demand in Central and Western Europe until the 17^th century, was the Venetian Republic. The 18^th century brought significant changes to maritime affairs in the eastern Mediterranean and the Adriatic. After three major wars with the Ottoman Empire, the Venetian Republic was forced to relinquish key positions in Levantine trade to its competitors. Alongside the loss of territories on the route to the Levant, Venice faced fierce competition in intermediary maritime trade, which it could no longer successfully withstand, increasingly confining it to the Adriatic. Venetian dominance in the Adriatic suffered another major blow when Austrian Emperor Charles VI issued a decree proclaiming free navigation in the Adriatic. The 18^th century also brought a gradual transformation of the existing maritime trade paradigm. In addition to the main (longitudinal) sailing route and a few transverse routes, an increasing number of cross-Adriatic trade routes emerged, resulting from the trade connections of new maritime centers and the growing maritime network of commercial flows. Maritime captains and patrons contributed to their further expansion into the Mediterranean through their entrepreneurial endeavors. Numerous documents testify to their maritime-commercial activities, among which the Croatian Maritime Regesta holds special significance. One of the important segments of the Mediterranean maritime trade network, in which the eastern Adriatic ports participated, was also the maritime trade between Mediterranean Asian ports and Ancona. The paper analyzes all the links of the trade network and presents the way the network functioned, as well as the transit role of the eastern Adriatic maritime centers within it. A somewhat more detailed review focuses on the goods involved in this international trade, as well as the ships, classified by type and political affiliation, that participated in the exchange of goods.