La laicità del mercato moderno. I Port-Jews tra assicurazioni e commercio interculturale in Adriatico

Abstract

In Ragusa, the mercantile activity of the Sephardi was grafted into a city that tended to Mediterranean trade. During the Sephardi diaspora of the 16th century a large group of Jewish merchants settled in Ragusa (Dubrovnik). In the Balkan Maritime Republic, the Sephardi and in particular the Ponentini, Jews converted through coercion to Christianity and returned to their original religion, through their relational networks contributed to strengthening the Ragusa-Ancona and Ragusa-Venice commercial axes. Market transactions, and specifically intercultural trade, configured an ethnic mosaic that tends towards a melting pot, at least on an economic level, while religious identity would lead to a salad bowl with clearly recognizable and distinct ethnic-religious elements. On the contrary, economic, social, diplomatic and sometimes even family networks pragmatically go beyond the religious aspects.