Un marché rural: Corleone en Sicile, 1375-1420

Abstract

Methodical study of sixteen registers from the notarial records of Corleone, a large Central Sicilian village, from 1370 to 1420, as well as the civic Custom, throw light upon a rural market, opened on international traffic through imported (mainly from Catalonia) cloth trade and regular sale of wheat and cheese large deals to Palermitan exporter merchants. We can detach the economical actors, mainly non professional and influential notaries, priests and surgeons, as well as jewish tanners and drapers. All this trade rests upon the machinery of anticipated purchase and credit sale, supplying the place of usury. Lack of merchant professionality, tendencially exclusive jewish technical expertness, and universal participation in agricul­tural enterprise distinguish the rural Sicilian market. In this general outline, Corleone's peculiarity lies in an uninterrupted activity of domestic spinning and weaving a rough woolen-orbace, contributing to give value to the rural production in a difficult trend for wheat trade.