Trade and Diplomacy in pre-Medici Florence. The Case of the Kingdom of Hungary (1349–1434) By Kati (Katalin) Prajda and Magyarország a középkori Európában kutatócsoport – Hungary in medieval Europe research group

https://www.academia.edu/29050949/Trade_and_Diplomacy_in_pre_Medici_Florence_The_Case_of_the_Kingdom_of_Hungary_1349_1434_ Commercial diplomacy today is a means for governments to increase international trade and therefore support their national economies. They apply political tools in order to promote business between their home and the host countries and to achieve commercial gains thereby. The phenomenon itself is not new, though, its roots might be traced back centuries before our times. Commerce, long distance trade and diplomacy were inseparable in the history of early modern trading nations. Diplomatic negotiations, correspondences and ambassadorships were designed with the view of obtaining or maintaining economic advantages for their merchants in the host states.The discussion that emerges in the following pages regards, therefore, the various sorts of relations between trade and diplomatic interests in early Renaissance Florence. It also discusses how individual and collective economic interests pushed the Florentine government toward a politics of maneuvers. The seemingly remote Kingdom of Hungary and its rulers, Louis I Anjou (1342-1382), his daughter Mary (1382-1395) and Sigismund of Luxemburg (1386-1437), proved to be good allies for such a politics during the period extending between the Black Death (1348) and Cosimo de’Medici’s return to the city (1434). ...