EH.Net Abstracts in Economic History

                ABSTRACTS IN ECONOMIC HISTORY
                     (c) 2002 EH.Net
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Name: Mark A. Aloisio
Email: aloi0001 at umn.edu
Institution: University of Minnesota

Co-author: none

Title: The grain trade between Malta and Sicily in the late middle 
ages and its economic and political implications

Internet Address of abstracted work: not available

By mail:
University of Minnesota
History Department
714 Social Sciences Building
Minneapolis, MN 55409

Language: English

Abstract:
The aim of the paper is to examine grain traffic between Sicily and 
the islands of Malta and Gozo during the fifteenth century. 
Precariously situated on the frontier between Islam and Christianity, 
the Maltese islands depended almost entirely on imported grain to 
support their population. The paper will examine how the need to 
obtain substantial and regular quantities of grain from Sicily 
conditioned the political and economic links between the Maltese 
commune and the central government in Palermo which, through the 
issue of export licences, controlled shipments of grain outside the 
kingdom. The paper also looks at the efforts of the Maltese to raise 
money to pay for these imports and their negotiations with local 
merchants for the purchase and transport of grain to the islands. 
Finally, the study will raise more general questions on the 
Mediterranean grain trade and the exchange of bulk products during 
the late middle ages.


Bibliography: Aloisio, Mark A. "The grain trade between Malta and 
Sicily in the late middle ages and its economic and political 
implications." University of Minnesota, Working Paper (2002).

Subject: S
Geographical Area: 4
Country/Region: Malta, Scicily
Time Period: 3

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