Anchorages, Infrastructures and Stevedoring in Medieval Atlantic Andalusia

Resumen

Port Infrastructures in the Late Middle AgesThe fifteenth century witnessed the flourishing and development of maritime commerce on the coast of Atlantic Andalusia. From that moment on, the region became one of the more dynamic and attractive markets in Europe. This scenario was determined by several interconnected factors. First, the strategic position along the international commercial routes made this area an obligatory stopping point for merchants connecting the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Second, rich fertile lands made this area one of the main exporters of staple goods for the European medieval markets: cereal from the countryside of Seville and Jerez de la Frontera; oil, mainly from the Sevillian Aljarafe region; and wine, in particular from Jerez and the Sierra Norte mountains of Seville. Finally, another element that stimulated the development of the Andalusian littoral was the establishment of numerous foreign communities, attracted to this region for the reasons mentioned above. The majority hailed from other regions within the Iberian Peninsula. They were people of the sea, mostly shipmasters from the Cantabrian seaboard and the Portuguese Algarve, and merchants from the Crown of Aragon. Others came mostly from the Italian peninsula (namely Genoa), Flanders or England. They were fewer in number but highly influential in terms of the development of credit and the export of Andalusian goods.The vast Andalusian littoral, with an extension of almost 300 kilometres from the river Guadiana on the border with Portugal, to the Strait of Gibraltar, possessed natural features that favoured the establishment of significant port enclaves.