Anglo‐Florentine Commercial Relations, 1465–1491

Abstract

T he period of greatest commercial activity between England and Florence was probably the fourteenth century. However, at that time, although the influence of Florentine merchants in England was at its height, English and Florentine shipping played no part in the trade. It was not until after 142 I, when not only Pisa but also the ports of Porto Pisano and Leghorn had finally fallen into Florentine hands, that Florentine shipping began to appear in northern waters, and it was not until well into the second half of the century that English shipping made its presence felt in the Mediterranean.1 The importance which was generally attached to the sea route in AngloFlorentine trade in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was the result of the great contrast between the costs of sea and land transport. Even with a luxury article such as silk the cost of sea transport from Venice to Flanders in the fourteenth century was one quarter of that of land transport.2 In the fifteenth century it is probable that the bulk of trade used the sea route, although there is some evidence that the contrast was not as great in particular instances as has sometimes been thought.3 The Florentine galleys, to which tariff concessions in Pisa secured much of the trade between 142i and 1465, were organized along the lines of the welltried Venetian system. From 1425 onwards fleets of two or three galleys sailed for the West each year in September.4 They called at several points around the western basin of the Mediterranean, usually touched on the west coast of the Iberian peninsular, and then headed straight for Sluys. After a long stop there they would appear in the English ports, usually Southampton or London, during the first quarter of the year.5 There they would load for forty or sixty