Rethinking the pre-­capitalist economies of the Mediterranean. Economic models in Chris Wickham’s L’asino e il battello

Journal title SOCIETÀ E STORIA
Author/s Paolo Grillo, Luigi Provero, Michele Campopiano
Publishing Year 2025 Issue 2025/190
Language Italian Pages 41 P. 855-895 File size 524 KB
DOI 10.3280/SS2025-190005
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This article highlights the historiographical and theoretical foundations of Chris Wickham’s critique of economic historiography that assesses the “prosperity” of an economy based on the participation of certain regions or countries in longdistance trade, as well as his criticism of Roberto Sabatino Lopez’s notion of a “commercial revolution” in the Middle Ages. Wickham’s critique is part of broader debates in economic history inspired by British Marxist historiography, particularly the social history studies associated with the journal Past & Present and the Dobb–Sweezy debate on the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Following the ideas of Maurice Dobb and Rodney Hilton, Wickham emphasizes the role of small producers and, consequently, regional trade in the development of economic complexity, linking economic transformations to class struggle between lords and producers. This approach makes it possible to identify the internal logic of the feudal mode of production and to understand the primary driving force behind Mediterranean economies in the Middle Ages.

Keywords: commercial revolution, mode of production, regional exchange, class struggle, economic transition.

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Paolo Grillo, Luigi Provero, Michele Campopiano, Il commercio mediterraneo nei secoli centrali del medioevo / Ripensare le economie precapitalistiche del Mediterraneo. Modelli economici nell’Asino e il battello di Chris Wickham in "SOCIETÀ E STORIA " 190/2025, pp 855-895, DOI: 10.3280/SS2025-190005