Trading Conflicts ─ Venetian Merchants and Mamluk Officials in Late Medieval Alexandria

Such is the wealth of information preserved in the State Archives of Venice that Christ (U. of Heidelberg) limits his study to two years, 1418-20, in order to examine merchants and trade in minute detail and set them in broad historical context. It was a time of crisis in Egypt, he says, with epidemics, rapid government changes, an economy in recession, a proto-colonial infiltration of European products and currency, and persecutions of Christians. He takes Biago Dolfin as typical of Venetian merchants in Alexandria and explores presumed religious conflicts and conflicts over the spice trade fair. The study is translated from his 2006 German PhD dissertation in medieval history at the University of Basel. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Georg Christ, Dr. phil. (2006) in History of the Middle Ages, Universitat Basel, is a research group leader at Universitat Heidelberg. He has published on topics in Late Medieval trade history, including news management, navigation and urban history.