Eastern Mediterranean at the turn of the tide [Book review:] Fusaro M. Political Economies of Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean: The Decline of Venice and the Rise of England, 1450–1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. XVI+408 p.

Abstract

The reviewed book by Professor Maria Fusaro (the University of Exeter, UK) is one of the key works in the modern historiography of the Eastern Mediterranean. The study consists of an introduction and twelve chapters based on the evaluation of a considerable number of sources, both primary and secondary (748 items), that create a multi-dimensional picture of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 16–17th centuries. The concept of the Venetian state as a “functional empire” developed in the study, along with an analysis of the British commercial expansion into the Mediterranean are placed into a wider context of the socio-economic transformation of the region. The author highlights the ignorance of the Republic’s subjects’ economic interest and preoccupation with the imperial role of Venice among the major factors that contributed to the failure to maintain its position in the Eastern Mediterranean. The success of the English was facilitated by the institutional peculiarities of their trade network, the crisis of the Venetian fleet, and the economic situation in the region. Among institutional peculiarities, the author stresses the freedom of action characteristic of the Levantine company, well-developed communal connections, the support of the state, and close partnership with Greek merchants. The multi-dimensional analysis of the early modern Eastern Mediterranean presented in the study allows us to both deepen our understanding of the region’s history and draw parallels between different colonial systems. The narrative formulated in the book considers not only European and Levantine contexts but also proto-global connections. The combination of these features makes the study under review a part of an essential bibliography for the scholars specializing in the history of the Eastern Mediterranean.