The history of Genoa and Genoese entrepreneurship in the seventeenth century has long been characterized as one of decline in the face of expanding northern European interests, particularly from the Netherlands and the British Isles. Not anymore. Alejandro García-Montón's book shows that, far from declining, Genoa and Genoese entrepreneurs adjusted to the new political and economic realities brought by European overseas expansion and helped shape global trade during the second half of that century. The book examines this transformation by focusing on the life and career of Domenico Grillo, a Genoese businessman whose firm held the contract to supply the Spanish colonies with enslaved Africans from 1662 to 1674. An estimated 22,000 Africans were shipped to the Spanish Americas during Grillo's asiento, which subsequently served as a model for companies and individuals interested in making business, slave trafficking included, with the Spanish crown.
Before the seventeenth century, Genoa thrived...
