La carrera de un mercader judeoconverso en el Nápoles español. Negocios y relaciones políticas de Miguel Vaaz (1590-1616)

This essay aims to investigate some aspects of the activity of the Portuguese converso merchant-banker Michele Vaaz (1550 ca. – 1623), in Naples. More specifically, in the first part of essay are presented the results of a systematic analysis of original documents of the ancient public banks of Naples (nowadays conserved in the Archivio Storico del Banco di Napoli). These documents permit to reconstruct the commercial and financial activities of Michele Vaaz from 1595 to 1610. Among the activities investigated, specific attention has been given to the ones that led Vaaz to establish a network of relationships within the local and central political elites of the kingdom and to reach, during the years of the VII Count of Lemos’rule, the peak of the power. That peak was achieved with conflicts and tensions that are described in the second part of the essay, dwelling in particular on an episode placed between 1614 and 1615. The importance and weight that the Portuguese merchants-bankers conversos had within the system of power of the Spanish monarchy during the XVII century explains the illustrative value of the history of Miguel Vaaz, marked by a constant confrontation with the centre of power and the local elites.