ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: Antonio Serra: The first analysis of economic dependence
Author: PERROTTA Cosimo
This paper is proposed in the occasion of the first complete English translation of Antonio Serra’s book on the economy of the Reign of Naples (1613). The translation is going to be published by The Other Canon on the initiative of its president, Eric Reinert. It is an important occasion, because Serra, one of the most brilliant mercantilists, is still nearly unknown among the English or non-Italian speaking scholars. On the one hand Serra’s proposes a typical mercantilist analysis, by interpreting the monetary questions and also the commercial problems under the light of the production features (such an approach once more disproves the old biases on mercantilists, who allegedly were concerned only with gold and foreign trade). But on the other hand Serra puts forward for the first time a detailed analysis of economic dependence, by explaining the processes through which his state is dominated by the other, stronger, Italian economies and by their merchants. This held for the imports of manufactured goods, the exports of agricultural products and raw materials, finally for domestic investments.
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