Late Medieval Administration and Bookkeeping in The Crown of Aragon: Torralba’s Company

Abstract

The attempt to rebuild the socioeconomic reality of the fifteenth-century Crown of Aragon has brought us to all the companies once founded and managed by Joan de Torralba. Linking two main commercial cities of that time — Zaragoza and Barcelona with the forefront financial centres of those days - Italian cities, in particular, Venice, Pisa-Florence, and Genoa — set the company in a unique position. This paper studies two primary components of our business: corporate and financial management. This analysis intends to demonstrate the complexity of management in late medieval companies of the Crown of Aragon, alongside knowledge diffusion and the extent and significance of weaving networks. We have in mind to present how the administration was developing, giving the local colour and regional details, making much of the proper management and contacts through the Mediterranean, employing management and historical analysis. The results reveal that the companies in the Crown of Aragon benefited from their management approach. The position of merchant elites, with the example observed by Joan de Torralba as the executive, was prominent. Hence, the weight of the last centuries of the Middle Ages, considering the West Mediterranean area, was essential in the transition to build a modern-like economic space.