What was the impact of the shift of economic balance from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic on the economy of Europe?

Most European intercontinental trade passed through the Atlantic during the Early Modern period, with the exception of Mediterranean trade and caravan trade through the Eurasian landmass, both in relative decline. Both the rise to primacy of the European economy and the increase in Atlantic trade have been momentous events in the history of the world. The temptation to link these two events has been very high in both popular and scholarly history since the 19th century. The debate about their relationship is not yet settled, because there is no general agreement on either the causes and characteristics of the divergence of Europe from other Old World economies or the benefits that intercontinental trade have provided to European economies. This bibliography provides sources that discuss the effect of Atlantic trade on European economies. Consideration of Europe as a whole is probably misleading in that every country—and probably every region—had a specific interaction with the Atlantic. This entry provides readings on the experience in Britain, Denmark-Norway, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and Spain. The experience of Britain is so important to the history of the European economy that this entry would not be complete without some readings on the effect of the Atlantic trade on the British Industrial Revolution.

Acemoglu, et al. 2005 has convinced many economists that Atlantic trade was an important catalyst of economic growth in Early Modern Europe. Few studies provide an overview of the whole European experience with Atlantic trade. Braudel 1992 and Wallerstein 1974–2001 are two meta-narratives of European growth and its relation with the rest of the world that are more impressive as descriptive works than as analyses. Findlay and O’Rourke 2007 is a good recent synthesis that can be used as a starting point to the rest of the literature. Emmer, et al. 2006 gathers different sources that provide good starting points for the study of each country’s experience. O’Brien and Prados de la Escosura 1998 did the same over a longer time period. This collection of papers is more focused, but does not treat the Scandinavian countries. Socolow 1996 and Black 2006 are reprint collections of important papers on, respectively, the slave trade and the other trades in the Atlantic. Magnusson 2008 is a useful collection of 17th- and 18th-century mercantilist texts arguing for the importance of trade for the prosperity of European economies.

Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson. “The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change and Economic Growth.” American Economic Review 95.3 (2005): 546–579.
DOI: 10.1257/0002828054201305
Provides an econometric test to the hypothesis that Atlantic trade was important for European growth because it encouraged the rise of good institutions in countries where initial institutions were good enough.
Black, Jeremy, ed. The Atlantic Slave Trade. 4 vols. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006.
The four volumes gather reprints of numerous articles on Atlantic slave trade in the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th century, respectively. Most articles, dating from 1940 to 2004, are available online, but the selection work is very valuable.
Braudel, Fernand. Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th Century. 3 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
Each volume treats one of three levels of economic activity: material life (routine activities of consumption and production, e.g., new consumption goods coming from Atlantic trade), market economy (exchange activities where market rules prevail: focus is on profits from Atlantic trade), and capitalism (large-scale exchange activities dominated by politics, monopolies, and high profits: focus is on the history of the European Atlantic expansion). The book argues that colonial trade and Atlantic trade are central to the development of capitalism in the world economy.
Emmer, Pieter, Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau, and Jessica Roitman, eds. A Deus Ex Machina Revisited: Atlantic Colonial Trade and European Economic Development. Atlantic World 8. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2006.

Provides a thorough approach vis-à-vis the role of Atlantic trade in Europe, including both articles on specific countries (Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Britain, France, Denmark-Norway, and Sweden) and more general articles, e.g., about the statistics of colonial trade and its importance in meta-narratives of the Great Divergence.
Findlay, Ronald, and Kevin H. O’Rourke. Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium. Princeton Economic History of the Western World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.
A very interesting general work on world trade and its economic role from 1000 to now. Chapters 4 to 7 cover trade with the New World and its effect on Europe up to the 19th century, with specific discussion about the flow of species, mercantilism, and the relationship between trade and the British Industrial Revolution.
Magnusson, Lars, ed. Mercantilist Theory and Practice: The History of British Mercantilism. 4 vols. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2008.
A collection of facsimile texts from the 17th and 18th centuries along with editorial comments. Volumes 2 and 3 (Foreign Trade: Regulation and Practice, and The Colonial System) provide texts discussing the advantages of Atlantic trade for the prosperity of European nations. It is too bad that no equivalent source exists for other countries.
O’Brien, Patrick K., and Leandro Prados de la Escosura, eds. Special issue: The Costs and Benefits of European Imperialism from the Conquest of Ceuta, 1415, to the Treaty of Lusaka, 1974. La Revista de Historia Económica 16.1: 1998.
Collection of articles prepared for the Session AI, Twelfth International Economic History Congress, Madrid, 24–28 August 1998, along with a long and interesting introduction by the editors. Covers much of Europe, except for the Scandinavian countries. Available online to subscribers.
Socolow, Susan M., ed. Atlantic Staple Trade. 2 vols. Expanding World 9. Aldershot, UK: Variorum, 1996.
The first volume gathers reprints on commerce and politics (especially the trade competition between the different actors of the Atlantic economy). The second volume gathers case studies of staple and luxury trade (e.g., logwood, rice, tobacco, cochineal).
Wallerstein, Immanuel. The Modern World System. 3 vols. Studies in Social Discontinuity. New York: Academic Press, 1974–2001.
The first volume treats the 16th century, the second one the mercantilist era (1600–1750), and the last one the Industrial Revolution. The main thesis is that the central place of Europe in the “modern world system” and its relations with the periphery are at the center of its successful economic divergence.

Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.

Plant nutrients such as phosphates, nitrates, and nitrites are scarce in the Mediterranean Sea. Just as in all other seas, these nutrients show seasonal fluctuations, generally with a rise in the spring, the phytoplankton blooming season. However, several factors account for the scarcity of nutrients in Mediterranean waters, the most important being that the Mediterranean receives most of its water from the surface water of the Atlantic Ocean. Despite low nutrient levels, the Mediterranean has a rich diversity of marine biota. Nearly one-third of its roughly 12,000 species are endemic.

The effective potential productivity in various regions of the Mediterranean can be measured by radioactive methods using carbon-14 dating to determine the amount of carbon produced in a given volume of water over a period of time. The lowest values are observed in the Levant and also in the Ionian Basin. The highest primary-production values in the Mediterranean Sea have been observed in springtime (March–May) off the Egyptian coast in areas under the influence of the outflow of the Nile.

density current: Mediterranean overflow current

With a temperature of 13.4 °C (56.1 °F) and a salinity of 38.4 practical salinity units (psu, which are roughly equivalent to parts per...

Commercial fisheries are highly valuable in the nutrient-poor Mediterranean. There is great demand for fish, and total catches for consumption in Mediterranean countries—both from within and outside the region—constitute a significant portion of the total world catch. The high price of fresh fish in most Mediterranean countries has favoured the development of a large number of small-scale local fisheries, which take small catches in short trips. Though the boats used rarely exceed 70 feet (20 metres) in length, their numbers are sufficient to deplete the local stocks through overfishing.

The tendency to overexploitation is strengthened by the use of trawl nets with very small mesh size that retain the smallest individuals. Efforts to reduce the catch of undersized fish through controlling mesh size have not been successful, because equipment varies from country to country and compliance is difficult to monitor. The most recent trend has been to use drift nets up to 15 miles (24 km) long that extend 40 feet (12 metres) into the water. These nets kill many noncommercial species, including dolphins, whales, sea turtles, and the endangered Mediterranean monk seal.

The fishes of the Mediterranean are related to subtropical Atlantic species. Of the demersal (bottom-living) fishes, flounder, soles, turbot, whitings, congers, croakers, red mullet, gobies, gurnard, lizard fish, redfishes, sea bass, groupers, combers, sea bream, pandoras, and jacks and cartilaginous fishes such as sharks, rays, and skates are all caught by the trawlers. Among the demersal fishes, hake is one of the more commercially important in all countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

The coastal hake, sole, and red mullet fisheries have been seriously overexploited. Rocky coasts once provided a valuable harvest of crabs, shrimps, prawns, and other shellfish, but coastal pollution and overfishing have largely depleted natural fisheries. Aquaculture has become increasingly important, especially in the eastern Mediterranean. In Egypt, coastal lagoons have been impounded to raise fish.

About half of the Mediterranean catches are of pelagic species (those caught in the upper layers of the sea). Sardines constitute the main catch in the western and northeastern parts of the Mediterranean. Occasionally sardines also appear in relatively small quantities in the southeastern part. Closely related fishes (Sardinella aurita and S. maderensis), however, occur in large quantities in the southern and southeastern region of the Mediterranean. The sprat is taken in some quantities in the most northern parts, such as in the northern Adriatic. Anchovy fishing is important in most regions of the Mediterranean.

The bluefin tuna is one of the high-value large fishes. It moves into the Mediterranean from the Atlantic and disperses in several directions: toward the southern and eastern coasts of Spain, the coasts of the Balearic Islands, the northern coast of Morocco, and the coasts of Sardinia, Sicily, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Related commercially valuable species are the bonitos and mackerels. Varying quantities are caught by nearly all Mediterranean countries. Important nonedible marine products include the corals of Naples and the sponges of the Dodecanese islands, the Gulf of Gabes, and the western coasts of Egypt.

Sea salt has been produced by evaporation in coastal pans along the eastern Mediterranean and elsewhere for millennia. In addition to its use as a seasoning, salt is now utilized by the chemical industry. Since the early 1980s, interest has grown in petroleum and natural gas exploration and production in the Mediterranean. Offshore wells produce a significant proportion of the oil and gas output of bordering countries. Italy, Libya, Egypt, and Algeria are the largest producers. Drilling also has been done off the coasts of Libya, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Tunisia. Bouri, in Libyan waters, is the most active Mediterranean offshore oil field. While Mediterranean oil and natural gas production is only a small fraction of world production, a significant proportion of total world oil refining takes place in the Mediterranean region. Refineries and petrochemical works in a number of major Mediterranean ports process crude oil from Persian Gulf countries shipped through the Suez Canal, as well as oil from Mediterranean countries. In addition, petrochemicals and other petroleum derivatives are produced for domestic consumption and export.

The 2,000-mile (3,200-km) access that the Mediterranean offers to rain-bearing westerly winds in the temperate zone, the ease of communications across the western, central, and eastern straits, and the prevailing freedom from storms in the summer months all made the Mediterranean the “inland sea” of early civilizations. Trade and communication flourished and declined with the fortunes of the Mediterranean civilizations. Following the Middle Ages, Constantinople (Istanbul), Barcelona, and the Italian commercial states assumed the role of trade intermediaries between the Orient and northwestern Europe. In the 15th century, however, the rise of the Ottoman Turks was followed by a rule of oppression and exploitation, and piracy made traffic on the sea hazardous. Moreover, the discovery at the end of the 15th century of the route to Asia around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa created a safer and easier sea route connecting northwestern Europe directly with the Orient. Mediterranean lands lost their commercial function as intermediaries between Europe and Asia, and, for more than two and a half centuries, the Mediterranean Sea remained a backwater of world ocean trade and traffic.

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, together with the advent of the steamship, continued industrialization in northwestern and central Europe, and French colonization in North Africa made the Mediterranean again one of the busiest sea-lanes of the world. Much of the traffic, however, passed through the sea en route between Asia and northwestern Europe. Countries in the Mediterranean basin had not been able to industrialize and had retained their agricultural and artisan economies, which limited their purchasing power and reduced their ability to trade.

The growth of the Mediterranean oil and gas industries has been paralleled by an increase in trade and transportation of the diverse consumer and industrial goods needed by expanding cities on both the northern and southern Mediterranean coasts. Coastal zones—especially in Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, and Morocco—have some of the world’s fastest-growing urban areas. Increased economic consolidation of Europe, however, has stimulated new trading patterns.

The lands ringing the Mediterranean Sea include some of the world’s most renowned tourist destinations, which lie either directly on the sea or its embayments (e.g., the French and Italian Riviera and Athens) or are close by (e.g., Rome and the Holy Land of the Middle East). Tourism is now a major source of income for those coastal countries, where a significant portion of world income from tourism is generated annually. Tens of millions of people descend each year to enjoy the Mediterranean’s beaches and culture-rich shores.

Growing industrialization, shoreline populations, and tourism since the mid-20th century have resulted in severely polluted waters in many Mediterranean coastal areas. Pollution in the Mediterranean tends to remain near its source of discharge because of relatively weak tidal and current movements. Despite the absence of significant transborder effects, the countries of the region have agreed to cooperate to control the threat of marine pollution. Assisted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 16 countries adopted the Mediterranean Action Plan (Med Plan) in 1975. The Med Plan comprises four elements: legal measures, institutional and financial support, integrated planning to prevent environmental degradation, and coordinated pollution monitoring and research. The two most important legal measures are the Barcelona Convention (1976), which calls for protective action against all forms of pollution, and the Athens Protocol (1980), which requires state parties to adopt programs to prevent and control pollution from land-based sources. The Med Plan has been widely regarded for successfully raising awareness of pollution in the Mediterranean; however, improvements in environmental quality under the plan have been limited.

Oceanographers sponsored by the European Union have discovered that major dam projects on rivers emptying into the Mediterranean (notably the Aswān High Dam on the Nile River in Egypt and the heavily impounded Ebro River in Spain) have been changing the Mediterranean’s hydrological characteristics. The reduced flow of fresh water from those rivers has been replaced by increased flows of saltier water from the Atlantic and the Red Sea. The saltier (and thus denser) seawater has modified circulation patterns, as evidenced by observed elevated flows from the Aegean Sea into the deeper parts of the Mediterranean. The impact of such changes, including the potential effects on Atlantic currents influenced by high-salinity Mediterranean waters exiting the Strait of Gibraltar, has been the focus of much research.