An international migration: Italians documented in notarial sources from the city of Valencia (1452-1500)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:33 +0000

From the mid-14th century until around 1500, demographic mobility throughout Europe reached very high levels in both quantitative and qualitative terms. The causes of human movements were multiple, as were the people and groups involved. In this context, the migrations that have been described as “elite” stand out, especially because they involved professionally qualified and sometimes economically solvent groups that moved even over long distances. This is the case of the economic operators of the cities and regions of central-northern Italy today, especially merchants and craftsmen, who were dispersed throughout most of the major cities of western Europe. In the Iberian Peninsula, their presence has been highlighted in centres such as Barcelona, Valencia, Mallorca, Zaragoza, Granada, Seville, Toledo, Valladolid and Lisbon. In the specific case of Valencia, micro-analyses carried out on local notarial sources from the period 1452-1500 have detected up to 734 individuals of this origin, whose regions of origin and professions are shown in the table below. Among these individuals were those who developed a prolonged residence in the city and an intense and powerful socio-economic activity. But there were also those who only stayed sporadically in Valencia and have left scarce traces in the documentation. In any case, they are all examples of international migration, whose effects on the host society (the Valencian one, in this example) were notable for the dose of cosmopolitanism and supralocal connection they brought.

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Activities of French immigrants in Saragossa (17th-18th centuries)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:33 +0000

Immigration to Spain is not a current phenomenon. During the Ancien Régime, numerous people of other nationalities emigrated to Spain in search of new opportunities and social advancement. The specific case of this resource refers to the trades that the French settled in Saragossa in the 17th and 18th centuries. According to the marriage records, 104 French settlers were counted in Saragossa. Of these, 84 worked as “employees”; 16 as “self-employed”; and 4 in an unknown employment situation. Of the 84 contracted, 21 were bakers, a much higher number than any other trade, followed by 8 labourers, 6 weavers and 5 servants. But the high disposition in the baker’s trade was not accompanied by a promotion in this sector, as only 1 was a master baker. Finally, there may have been cases in which immigrants sought shortcuts to social advancement outside the law, as in the case of Juan Sarto, a Frenchman who forged documents from the University of Zaragoza and parish books to pass himself off as Aragonese.

The post Activities of French immigrants in Saragossa (17th-18th centuries) first appeared on History Lab.

Migraciones - History Lab

An international migration: Italians documented in notarial sources from the city of Valencia (1452-1500)

Activities of French immigrants in Saragossa (17th-18th centuries)