Trust, globalisation and citizenship in Renaissance Europe : the case of the South German merchants of Lisbon around 1500

This article reassesses the relationship between trust and globalisation with a focus on the merchants of Nuremberg and Augsburg dealing with Lisbon around 1500 and further groups involved in their trade (artists, artisans, printers, scholars and courtiers). It aims to explore the significance of Renaissance citizenship as practice and as thought in shaping the relationship between trust and globalisation. By introducing a decisively republican approach to citizenship and trust, it suggests a new approach to the relationship between trust and globalisation.

The article starts by reframing the question of the relationship between globalisation and trust in the Renaissance in republican terms before proceeding to the close examination of the case of the German merchants trading in and with Lisbon around 1500 and their milieu (I). After having introduced the context of the case-study and elaborated on its empirical dimension (II), the article investigates how, in the mentioned context, trust arose from citizenship, i.e. how citizenship understood as a category (C. Tilly) favoured access to information, and, conversely, how trust contributed to building citizenship defined as a tie (C. Tilly) to the extent that it enhanced obligations of reciprocity (III). The article, finally, explores some aspects of the relationship between the theory and practice of citizenship in the Renaissance as it can be drawn from the case-study (IV).