| This dissertation examines the late thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century grain market at Orsanmichele in Florence, and its attendant confraternity. It argues that the grain market was of systemic economic, political, and social importance to Florence, not unlike the wool market. The grain market was complex and sophisticated, and it functioned essentially as an early commodities exchange. It allowed large international traders operating in the Regno and smaller dealers in local and regional markets to import, with communal support, massive amounts of grain for distribution to the Florentine populace, which included a growing immigrant population employed in Florentine industries. The market's centralized trading venue enabled the rapid distribution of a bulk commodity, and it served as a mechanism for pricing efficiencies and to shift quickly the risks from the supplier to the consumer. As a centralized location and an important symbol of the new merchant-led government, however, the market was vulnerable to threats from opposing magnate forces that the market's backers, essentially large international traders (including the families of Orsanmichele) and the communal government, sought to undermine. From this vantage point, I argue that the confraternity of Orsanmichele, established under the grain loggia in 1291, should be viewed in a derivative position to the market, as a political shield providing a "holy wall" of protection for the market. I further argue that the leadership of the commune, market, and confraternity were intertwined, with the market and confraternity essentially serving as arms of the communal government. Even during the dearth of 1329, when the nodal import link, the Porto Pisano, closed due to war and large Florentine traders withheld wheat supplies, I suggest that the commune worked with the confraternity to provide a social safety network and with the trading community to stabilize the market. In providing a market-oriented perspective, I believe that the dearth of 1329 should be viewed as a market break, with an ensuing panic, not unlike market breaks of the modern era. |
