French merchants in the export of fine Castilian wool during the 16th and 17th centuries. An initial approach from the Sorian context

Abstract

This prosopographical study is part of a more global project intended to identify and characterize the different groups of foreign merchants that began to take control of the export of fine wool from the Crown of Castile in the last decades of the 16^th century after an initial phase, spanning the 16^th and 17^th centuries, in which the business was mainly in the hands of Castilian merchants. On this occasion the author pays particular attention to the group of merchants of French origin. He identifies those merchants that acquired wool from the region of Soria for export during the 16^th and the 17^th centuries. He reports on their places of origin, and makes a distinction between those who traded without abandoning their residence in France and those who ended up establishing their residence in Castilian territory. He also focuses on the terms of the contracts subscribed by all these merchants when acquiring wool from Soria