Ragusa (Dubrovnik) e la circolazione del vino tra le due sponde adriatiche nel Basso Medioevo

Abstract

Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and the Wine Trade between the Two Shores of the Adriatic in the Late Middle Ages. Ragusa’s function as a commercial gateway between the Balkans and the Mediterranean has long been acknowledged, as has the inherent scarcity of arable land in its territory. The city relied heavily on food imports – above all grain from Puglia – yet remained self-sufficient in the production of wine, the only widely-consumed agricultural commodity that did not entail systematic reliance on foreign markets. To safeguard local viticulture and prevent the depreciation of vineyard values, the Ragusan government imposed a strict ban on the import of foreign wines. This article examines the complexities of enforcing such restrictive legislation throughout the late medieval period. Despite increasingly severe penalties, wine smuggling persisted, while the bans themselves were periodically relaxed to offset poor harvests or to permit the import of limited quantities of high-quality wines, notably Malvasia, documented in Ragusa from the second half of the fourteenth century. The resulting regulatory framework reveals a constant tension between protectionist strictures and economic pragmatism. Moreover, the import restrictions did not preclude transit: Italian wines – from Puglia, the Marches, and Abruzzo – passed regularly through the port of Ragusa en route to the Dalmatian coast and the Balkan hinterland . Ragusa thus operated as a pivotal node within Adriatic commercial networks, seeking to reconcile the defence of local production, the interests of its merchant class, and an elite demand for foreign wines that no legislation could entirely suppress.