The Italian involvement in the Macao `coolie trade?: the role of the Genoese commercial diaspora in Peru and the Pacific Rim, c.1847-1874

This thesis examines the participation of a network of Genoese (or Ligurian) merchants in the organization and management of the so-called coolie trade from Macao to Cuba, Peru and other Latin American countries in the third quarter of the nineteenth century (c.1847-1874). Based on archival research conducted in Italy, Portugal, Macao and Hong Kong, the study analyzes the extent and significance of this involvement—so far almost entirely overlooked by the Italian historiography—investigating the individual trajectories of these merchants and their relations within the expanding nineteenth-century global economy