Notarial Archives and Social Network Analysis: Ottaviano Fregoso and the Genoese Consulate in Seville

Abstract

This paper proposes an approach to the study of the ‘merchant nation/guild’ for the Genoese community in southern Castile at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, based on Social Network Analysis of the merchants’ commercial activities through notarial archives. In order to do so, it examines the letter sent by Ottaviano Fregoso (Governor of Genoa, 1516–1522) to the Genoese nation in Seville in 1520. At that time, only 20 individuals signed as recipients of the letter from a wider network of hundreds. This raises the question of why only these merchants appear as recipients. Was there a system imposed by the nation to select the best-connected and most influential merchants in the market? This article will show that the structure and characteristics of the Genoese southern Castilian allowed for rapid exchange and communication, while at the same time revealing a disregard for the ‘merchant nation/guild’.