Antonella Viola’s scientific contributions

The article aims to reconstruct and explore the trading-networks established by a group of Genoese and Florentine merchants in Portugal in the second half of the 17th century. The analysis focuses on the one hand, on the economic relations that these actors forged within and outside Portuguese borders and on the other, on the coeval political contest which reverberated on their mercantile activities. In the past decades, different disciplines have been growingly interested in exchange relationships, broadly understood, as testified to by the extensive literature in the field of network analysis. Despite borrowing from the theoretical and methodological tools provided by recent studies on trading networks, we have designed our analytical path in a flexible ways as to be able to combine the exploration of economic-commercial aspects with the political conjuncture, and the diplomatic relations between Genoa, Tuscany and Portugal.