Global History

Celebrity as a Market of Consumer Goods

Celebrity became a market of consumer goods with the creation of collectible small statues of celebrities which were sold especially in Naples, England, and France. Along with statues, there were portraits.

The second example, apart from Voltaire, is Rosseau. Rosseau had a different attitude from Voltaire because he was describing the negative sides of celebrity as a limitation of freedom and solitude. This self-consciousness is an unprecedented phenomenon: before the 18th century, nobody else ever described celebrity in such a modern way.

The negative side of celebrity, infamous celebrity, is very present and it could have political outcomes. An infamous celebrity was Marie Antoinette, for example. We can see the diffusion of many caricatures and satires depicting the queen as unfaithful, and this is meaningful because for the first time the figure of the Monarch wasn't sacred, people intruded Queen's private life.

By the end of the 18th century, everyone can become a celebrity: not only kings but...

also actors, writers, philosophers, people with common origin. It represented a business with income, generated a vast market but with the NEGATIVE SIDE of lack of privacy, loneliness and eventually a potential POLITICAL WEAPON. When celebrity meets politics the result is POPULARITY, and Marie Antoinette was the first victim of this. The association was understood by leaders in France, exploiting celebrity to have favors and gain political power. POLITICAL POPULARITY is necessary in a democracy to gain people's support, this mechanism was first experimented on large scale during French Revolution and used by its leaders. The role of newspapers was controlling information, to construct public image and control information. Political popularity could build public image and overcome negative sides of celebrity. This relates to George Washington, another example of celebrity, considered father of the country: on one hand he was able to exploit the mechanism of celebrity invented in Europe but

also to introduce himself as exceptional man in his life, powerful leader and skilled politician. Private life remained always private. This remodeling of celebrity done in America and Atlantic was re-exported in EU with much more influence.

NAPOLEON represents a turning point in several aspects of global history, but he was also the first to combine fame, celebrity and glory and to exploit them in such an effective way. He followed the steps of Washington but reaching a new level. People either adored him or feared him, but he really inspired strong feelings and was not a neutral figure. His fame continued strongly after his death but not in the same way of glory but continued to be felt intimately within people. Napoleon was not only represented in Western society, but also in other areas.

Celebrity goes along with global FAKE NEWS. Napoleon was considered very short, but it was fake news for the time. The rumor was created by the British: they did not use the decimal system and created an

Equivalence which presented Napoleon to be shorter, and it spread after his defeat with the aim to downsize him in the eye of the public.

Free ports

This lesson and the next lesson will be devoted to a specific case study, through which we will try to put together the many threads we have followed so far in order to explain how, in the early modern age, the world became increasingly interconnected and thus, global. Free ports are very specific institutions, not only port cities, but also experimental institutions. A free port has specific laws and regulations, which differ from the standard laws and regulations of the Early Modern Age. It is an institution which fostered changes and was instrumental in creating modernity, and a global world. The first port cities in the Mediterranean were Genoa and Livorno, created at the very end of the 16th century. Then, a further spreading in the 17th century led to many cities turning into free ports. In the second half of 19th century free ports will have

more global spreading in East Asia and Latin America.
During the 18th century, most European states established free ports, firstly in the Mediterranean, in the northern part of Europe and subsequently also in the colonies, especially in the Caribbean. There were debates, and between the 17th and the 18th century, even the idea of turning an entire nation into a huge free port, especially in Britain and in the Netherlands. There was a great deal of cooperation between the free ports, but also a great deal of competition.
The very same people who created the first free ports at the end of the 16th century, created a legend connected to very ancient origin, saying that there was already a free port in ancient Greek, the port of Délos. This legend was created in order to give noble origins to this new institution. Today, there is no more use of the term 'free port'. However, we have special economic zones which function like free ports in many ways. It is interesting to lookat this Early Modern Age institution because eventhough the term changed over time, and commerce changed as well, it provided a useful model and possible solution for the contemporary age. The first codification of what a free port is, was made at the beginning of the 18th century in France, starting from the case of Marseille. The elaboration took more than 100 years: from the establishment of the first free port to the codification of a general idea of this concept. It is a very simple definition, which says that: "a free port, in Commerce, a Port open and free for Merchants of all Nations, to load and unload their Vessels, without paying any Duties or Customs". The two elements which emerge from this definition are FREE TRADE, without any duties or customs, and another kind of freedom, FREEDOM OF RELIGION and NO-DISCRIMINATION for people. This is unprecedented in the Early Modern Age, where usually there was a closure towards people coming from different backgrounds. Probably,they were allowed to enter the port and commerce, but they were not allowed to establish themselves and their families within. With free ports, this changes: free ports are places in which you can enjoy high degrees of commercial liberty, but also of religious, social, and political liberty. The definition continues by giving a series of examples starting from Genoa. Finally, there is an interesting notation: "The Emperor, since his being in possession of the States in Italy, formerly belonging to Spain, has seemed determined to establish a free port in some of the cities he possesses on the Adriatic sea". This definition was given at the beginning of the 18th century. The Empire it is being talked about is the Holy Roman Empire. The Emperor was Charles VI, who after the Peace of Utrecht came in possession of huge portions of Italy and started to devise plans to expand the Holy Roman Empire influence in the Mediterranean and to establish a powerful merchant empire. To do so, thefrom different concepts: negative freedom and positive freedom. Negative freedom refers to the absence of external constraints or interference, while positive freedom refers to the ability to actively pursue one's goals and desires. In the context of free ports, the use of both adjectives "franc" and "libre" suggests that they embody both forms of freedom. On one hand, they are "franc" in the sense that they are free from customs duties and other restrictions on trade, allowing for the movement of goods and capital without hindrance. This represents the concept of negative freedom. On the other hand, free ports are also "libre" in the sense that they provide opportunities for economic growth and development. They attract businesses, create jobs, and stimulate trade, thus enabling individuals to pursue their economic goals and improve their standard of living. This represents the concept of positive freedom. By combining both forms of freedom, free ports offer a unique environment that promotes economic activity and fosters international relations. They serve as hubs for global trade, facilitating the exchange of goods and ideas between different countries and cultures. In conclusion, the concept of free ports encompasses both negative and positive freedom, making them important players in international relations and economic development.In the early modern age and it is visible in the free port as an institution. It refers to a double level of economic and religious freedom, but it also has a more complex meaning. 'Franc' means that you are free from a series of constrictions which were typical of the Ancién Régime society, related more to economic freedom. 'Libre' is an active form of freedom, the free port is a place in which you are not only free from constraints, but you are also free to practice your religion, establish yourself and your family, and start an activity. This is an interesting element which is of paramount importance in defining modernity. Global free ports (viewed from Venice 1806-1870) thIn the 19 century there was a further expansion of free ports. Venice became a free port by Napoleon. When it was made a free port, in the stock exchange it started a systematic data collection about free ports all over the world, with the purpose of being informed on competition.

Having new ideas to improve the free port of Venice (which actually resulted as a failure). They kept this information system to collect information about free ports all over the world. It also gives a map of the expansion of free ports in the 19th century. There was presence of free ports in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and in the Russian Empire as well. However, Venice lost track of other free ports in the southern part of Latin America and in East Asia. This was to introduce another element, that of the connection, the interconnection, and the circulation of information among the many free ports.

Since free ports can be something unusual, free ports are used as a case study. A free port represents a focal, nodal point in the global net because the status of free ports favors trade, circulation of people, goods, activities, and interactions between local and foreign merchants. Thus, in many ways free ports are economic laboratories in which the idea of 'free trade' started. Moreover,

Free ports are political and cultural laboratories. There are cities in which not only trade, but also other important processes related to communication and information. There are cities which help us better understand mobility, international relations, 'neutrality', human rights and the development of welfare and public health.

In some moments, it seems that many different people from different backgrounds, national, religious, professional and social, coming together in a city to make it successful, make it more open, as Trieste in the 1680s with the Academy of Arcadia. However, if we look at cities in a moment of crisis, the first people to be accused are the most different ones, especially in the 17th century plague, Jews were expelled from the ports because they were considered responsible.

Another case is Marseille: while France was colonizing Africa, Marseille was the hub for exchanges with Africa, and attracted many migrants. This resulted in social intolerance, and it was...