The grain trade and minorities in the early modern Italian Peninsula and beyond: An introduction
本文介绍了一期特刊，探讨近代早期欧洲少数群体在谷物贸易中的作用，尤其是在危机时期，他们利用商业网络和资本应对市场中断，并与政治当局互动。
This paper introduces the Special Issue ‘Minorities and Grain Trade in Early Modern Europe’. While an area’s traditional supply circuits benefitted from satisfactory harvests and a stable food demand, minorities’ contribution became crucial during crisis. Due to their commercial networks, facilities, and capital, minorities and their agents were able to cope with market disruption, especially when inflation and the reconfiguration of supply areas rendered ‘traditional’ grain merchants unable to face the emergency. The papers included in the Special Issue focus on the geographical and financial scope of legal grain-trading minorities’ businesses and their degree of specialisation and analyse how political authorities’ reliance on minorities to face food scarcity not only represented an economic opportunity for minorities but also contributed to shaping their relationship with public authorities.