Violence in eighteenth-century European port-cities and their hinterlands

Abstract

The chapter is divided into two distinct parts. First, it explores Porto’s urban space by analysing the political, jurisdictional, economic and social relations that had been established over time which determined the relationship between the port and its hinterland in the second half of the eighteenth century. Second, the chapter focuses on the descriptions of reported violence both in the regional capital and its hinterland, using surviving archival data. The absence of a continuous and extensive series of judicial records is normally a barrier to historical research, even in towns with a special court with responsibility for cases involving violence. As a port-town with a medium volume of traffic compared with larger European ports, Porto was familiar with different forms of violence often connected with the harsh reality of quayside work involving seamen, naval construction workers and warehouse employees.