Page 84 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

84 from Italy to the Canary Islands

which had even founded Genoa, calling it Genoa, had fallen, as well as the
Byzantine Empire, which - still two centuries after the death of Justinian
in 565 - validly defended the “theme” of Liguria from attacks by the early
Kingdom of the Lombards, and as the ruling imperium of the Kingdom of
Italy had been reduced to a mere name, the inhabitants of Liguria inevi-
tably had to self-organise, establishing their own municipalities, building
their own fortresses and cities, as well as forming their own institutions
which – in name only – recalled the supremacy of the Holy Roman Empire.
We should perhaps locate the whole origin of the autochthonous power
th
of Genoa and Liguria in the late 10 century, when the region was divided
into three marches: Arduinica, Aleramica and Obertenga, which had the
strength to prevent the Saracen raids with the creation (probably) of some
rudimentary “Companies”.
This term means an equal system of owners and workers, in which the
former provided capital and the latter work; we can speak in this way of an
ante-litteram Taylorist economy. American economist Robert Taylor was
in fact the first to clarify the concept of organising capital based on labor
and dividing labor among many, thus optimising performance.
In fact – as in anticipation for the “Taylorist” concept – in the year
1056, the March of Obertenga (withdrawing from the Reign of Italy, south-
ern part of the Germanic Holy Roman Empire) created an independent
“Company” formed by capitalists – merchants on the one side and salaried
working class craftsmen and/or sailors on the other, whose aim was to
organise small naval expeditions out to sea, which would become increas-
ingly larger and would go further and further.
When this “Company” became a public body, legally incorporating fur-
ther members by voluntary subscription - which from the restricted initial
number had extended to all the main inhabitants of “Genoa” - the free
Municipality of Genoa was founded.
It would take up too much space here to list all the events from 1050
to 1200 (also because we would risk of writing the history of the Republic
of Genoa, instead of that of the Malocello family), but it is well worth our
while to present in a synthetical manner the political strategy of the free
maritime Commune of Genoa in those one hundred and fifty years.
In brief, we could define the action of Genoa as a true geopolitical re-
alpolitik. It is useful to start by saying that the time period between the 6
th
th
and the 10 century AD saw the greatest Barbarian invasions: from the
first wave represented by the Vandals, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, to