Traditionally, historiography has accepted and perpetuated the image of the existence of a predominantly Genoan commercial trade in the Nasrid sultanate of Granada. As a result, the possible importance of traders coming from the crown of Aragon was underestimated. This article analyses the presence in Granada of merchants from Valencia, Mallorca and Catalonia during the reign of Alfonso the Magnanimous (1416–1458). It shows that the penetration was much deeper than was originally thought, above all in the case of the Valencians, and that, as such, it is necessary to revise the idea of Ligurian colonialism. But it also demonstrates that, contrary to what was asserted, in the kingdom of Valencia it was not the Mudejar merchants who dominated trade but the Christians who managed to obtain monopolies in Granada as significant as the exportation of silk and the importation of salt.

Peer reviewed