Institutions, Information, and the Invention of Free Trade

Chapter 3 shows that the legislative framework erected by the Medici was full of lacunae and uncertainties. A system of supplications, or personal requests for ducal favor, was responsible for elaborating the theory and practice of the free port in the first half of the century. Although the central government played a formal role in resolving requests, in practice local officials made decisions in particular cases. The supplications functioned according to a bureaucratic logic that tended willy-nilly to serve the interests of the growing business community in Livorno: foreigners of any ethno-religious affiliation could trade in Livorno by virtue of its character as a free port.