Scambi commerciali e reti mercantili fra Vicino Oriente ed Europa. Le aziende veneziane nella seconda metà del Quattrocento

This thesis aims to study business relations and commercial strategies in the preindustrial time. During the last decades, historians, as well social scientists and economists, have shown a renewed interest on the institutional framework that governed trade relations across different cultures. Using a specific case-study (the Venetians merchants in the Near East), I analyse the presence and the role of business techniques used on Levantine and European markets during the Renaissance. The actors of the exchange, their commercial networks, and the intensity of imports and exports flows are at the core of the research. These elements are seen in the light of strategies used to the conquest of new and old markets, in connection with economic changes taking place in the Italian peninsula and the European and Mediterranean scenario.