Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Defining Jurisdictional Frameworks for Maritime and Coastal Activities: The Example of the Atlantic Ports of the Kingdom of France in the Second Half of the Middle Ages
- 2 Basque Stevedoring and Cargo Handling Infrastructures (14th–16th Centuries)
- 3 Port Structures and Cargo Handling in Asturias and Galicia (13th–16th Centuries)
- 4 Slave Trade and Northern Portuguese Seaport Operations in the Sixteenth Century
- 5 Transport and Shipping in the Portuguese Northern Border in the Sixteenth Century
- 6 Anchorages, Infrastructures and Stevedoring in Medieval Atlantic Andalusia
- 7 Ports and Port Labour in Tenerife during the Transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age
- Conclusions: The Port Phenomenon of Medieval Atlantic Europe
- Sources and Bibliography
- Index
2 - Basque Stevedoring and Cargo Handling Infrastructures (14th–16th Centuries)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 May 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Defining Jurisdictional Frameworks for Maritime and Coastal Activities: The Example of the Atlantic Ports of the Kingdom of France in the Second Half of the Middle Ages
- 2 Basque Stevedoring and Cargo Handling Infrastructures (14th–16th Centuries)
- 3 Port Structures and Cargo Handling in Asturias and Galicia (13th–16th Centuries)
- 4 Slave Trade and Northern Portuguese Seaport Operations in the Sixteenth Century
- 5 Transport and Shipping in the Portuguese Northern Border in the Sixteenth Century
- 6 Anchorages, Infrastructures and Stevedoring in Medieval Atlantic Andalusia
- 7 Ports and Port Labour in Tenerife during the Transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age
- Conclusions: The Port Phenomenon of Medieval Atlantic Europe
- Sources and Bibliography
- Index
Summary
ABSTRACT. This chapter will analyse the legal support granted to the task of stevedoring, the organisation of port spaces (loading and unloading areas), and the workforce (men and women), by establishing a hierarchy in these orders. These activities were firmly controlled by confraternities, guilds and consulates, both in ports of origin and in ports of destination. Accordingly, and given the importance of loading and unloading tasks, I shall also present a comparative analysis with other primary Atlantic spaces, with a particular focus on technical and logistical transferences, the evolution and strategies of ‘mutualisation’ processes in port labour and the settlement of conflicts generated by a trade that required precision and legal protection, practised as it was on the maritime frontier, a sphere of intersections or a living membrane leading to both positive and negative manifestations. And this, with an emphasis on the correlations between the different realities involved.
From the thirteenth century, maritime commerce crossed borders and inaugurated a network of routes, from Scandinavian port towns to Castile and Mediterranean markets; a network of seaways giving rise to the consolidation of an increasingly prosperous and fluent mercantile traffic. Medieval maritime commerce was governed by consuetudinary uses and customs of mariners, transporters and carriers; it later became necessary to commit these norms to writing as a means of facilitating their dissemination and enforcement, providing security to mercantile traffic, offering assurance for merchants and seamen and expediting the resolution of conflicts.
Thus, a set of legal corpora – ius privatista – was developed and disseminated along the Atlantic waterfront, systematising maritime transport services, with the main aim of preserving the cargo, since ‘the ship is its cargo’. Areas covered include the loading, type and form of stowage, protection during the voyage and the unloading, storage and, if necessary, the transhipment of merchandise.
A task as complex as that of cargo handling drove the adaptation of port compounds through the building of infrastructures to facilitate tasks and incorporate specialised technology for the handling of cargo that on occasions was weighty and voluminous. Hence, a long chain of players participated in maritime transport, men of the sea and men of the land, the latter being the final actors in the loading and unloading of merchandise.
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- Ports in the Medieval European AtlanticShipping, Transport and Labour, pp. 31 - 56Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021