Ports in the Medieval European Atlantic: Shipping, Transport and Labour ed. by Rivera Medina and Ana María

Abstract

Reviewed by: Ports in the Medieval European Atlantic: Shipping, Transport and Labour ed. by Rivera Medina and Ana María Patrick Ball Rivera Medina, Ana María, ed., Ports in the Medieval European Atlantic: Shipping, Transport and Labour, Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 2021; hardback; pp. xvi, 202; 16 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. £75.00; ISBN 9781783276158. As Jésus Ángel Solórzano Telechea remarks in the epilogue to this volume (p. 168), port history has emerged as a subdiscipline of urban history only in the past thirty years. Historical scholarship on ports had previously reflected other interests, touching on ports themselves only incidentally. As most recent research has a more modern focus, this book is designed to cater to medievalists, or those wanting a grounding in the medieval history of ports as background to the study of more recent centuries. The specific focus is smaller port towns. The work covers France and the Atlantic side of the Iberian Peninsula, with a closing chapter on the Canary Islands. The British Isles are not considered; in fact, only the opening chapter deals with France. This reflects the fact the volume grew from a collaboration between two Spanish research groups. The Iberian focus gives the book unity but renders its title somewhat misleading; it is also a misnomer in the sense that most chapters devote themselves partly or wholly to the sixteenth century, not the Middle Ages per se. Although different cultural practices and regulatory frameworks may mean the studies presented are not perfectly transferable, the work has comparative value for researchers investigating other regions or periods—the constraints and pressures on port communities were often the same. Certain chapters explore some specific aspect of port infrastructure, with the result that scholars not specialized in ports may find them interesting. The outstanding example of this is Amândio J. M. Barros’s examination of slave trading logistics in Portuguese ports. The volume’s production values are excellent. Maps, images, tables, and diagrams are clearly set out and well captioned. Footnote references are copious and informative. The editing (including English-language editing) is to a high standard. The chapter organization is primarily geographical (working down the coast of France, along Iberia’s western front, then jumping to Tenerife) but this fits the chronological and thematic structure well too: the first chapter deals with the medieval era; the next two cover the late Middle Ages and sixteenth century; subsequent chapters increasingly concern the sixteenth century. Were it not for the fact that these considerations more or less impose the chapter order adopted, I would have said that the two last contributions were best suited, from their nature, to introduce the subject: they present a bird’s-eye view of their topic, [End Page 259] permitting them to showcase the subject matter clearly and straightforwardly. In some respects, the earlier chapters involve more specialist concerns. The opening chapter, Mathias Tranchant’s, is something of an outlier. Tranchant describes who had jurisdiction over France’s medieval coastline—local lords, great lords, or the sovereign—how far out to sea these different jurisdictions extended, and how they might clash. While he does not differentiate ports from the coast in general, the work does not suffer from this. Then follow two chapters on cargo handling in northern Spain: Ana María Rivera Medina (the volume’s editor) on Basque stevedoring structures, and María Álvarez Fernández on Asturias. Rivera Medina’s contribution is, in particular, crisply and concisely written. Both touch on coastal geography’s limiting effect on ports. Natural deficiencies often demanded or stimulated the development of infrastructure and institutions. Chapters 4 and 5 concern Portuguese ports. Barros’s examines specific logistical issues around the slave trade and the role of slaves in port communities. Sara Pinto’s takes the port of Caminha as a case study, discussing cross-border interactions between Portugal and Spain and discussing the phenomenon of border interfaces more generally. Finally, Enrique José Ruiz Pilares considers infrastructure and stevedoring in Andalusia, while Roberto J. González Zalacain looks at Tenerife in the Canary Islands, where Andalusian practices were influential. Tenerife’s case was atypical: an island whose indigenous inhabitants had had...