The Fall of the Pisan �Empire’

Then, like all empires do, Pisa declined and fell. If Borchardt was interested in imperial Pisa, another foreigner, American historian David Herlihy (1930-1991), observed Pisa during a later time characterised by the loss of empire.^{[756] [757] [758] The two approaches could not be different, but they deal mainly with different periods and topics; hence are compatible.}

During the latter half of the thirteenth century, even as Pisa was losing its empire, Herlihy sees significant economic dynamism. 5¹ He was right. Pisa’s industry was developing (especially the tanneries and the manufacture of woollen textiles, industries that could still rely on Sardinia and north Africa as providers of raw materials), and its relationship with the hinterland was in­tensifying and dynamic. And new social strata were coming to the fore, often represented by individuals and families who had recently immigrated from the surrounding countryside. These new social groups were then able to dominate the city’s political life. They promoted inflationary measures, and linked Pisa’s economy and productive activities with Tuscan markets. Abandoning a long tradition of co-optation within aristocratic milieux, they took over the com­mune in the latter half of the thirteenth century. Florence would eventually take control over what â€?il popolo’ (the emerging social strata) had overtaken.

Protoindustrial and indeed protocapitalist development, even though Pisa could never compete with Florence's budding capitalism, accompanied a steadily reducing international trade.54 Diminishing returns, the disastrous consequences of the Fourth Crusade for Pisa's Constantinople's colony, and increased competition forced Pisa's own fateful withdrawal �east of Suez' (approximately). North Africa and Sardinia for a while remained central to Pisan interests, traditionally the most lucrative and indeed the most �colonial' areas of its overseas activity.55 Their economies were compatible with Pisa's developing new industries: pastoralism in the periphery sustained tanneries in the metropole.

It was a Pisan attempt to secure the preclusive occupation of Corsica that resulted in war with Genoa. Controlling Corsica had become necessary in or­der to secure the north of Sardinia - from their base in Bonifacio the Genoese were able to disrupt further Pisan expansion. Pisa lost the war, its harbour was destroyed, its fleet was lost, its men had been taken prisoners. And yet its au­thorities did not relinquish Sardinia, which remained under its control and enable it to partially recover^⁶ Soon the â€?empire' was contracting. The Genoese blockade after disastrous defeat at sea in 1284 had compromised trading op­portunities.

Delayed loss of empire is often associated with the presence of settlers.^[760] Volpe saw the Catalan takeover as the beginning of the foreign occupation of Italy and the end of the Communal beginning of Italy's ascent, a crucial turn­ing point. He would write a nationalist account of Corsica's history, an island equally subject in his estimation to foreign domination.^[761]

Herlihy had another perspective. Talking about the economy, Herlihy con­cluded that the �demands of a new industry and the attraction of new com­mercial opportunities had triumphed'.6^{[762] [763] Pisa had in practice joined a Tuscan Union as a subordinate partner to Florence (it was indeed a monetary union of sort: the coin issued by the five major Tuscan mints was circulating free­ly across different polities and what one was doing involved the other ones, which prompted Florence's interventionist policy and oversight).62 Pisa had finally reconciled itself with its Italian surrounds, even Borchardt agreed[764] An ambition to �exit' the union would never disappear entirely, but wishful thinking, nostalgia for past glories, and hostility against recent migrants who had conquered the city's government and its economy would not coalesce in sustainable political options. Pisa agonised over this choice long before Britain did, but in Pisa's case the �remain' option continued to be the default one, even if it was repeatedly threatened. Insular xenophobia, in any case, con­trasted markedly with Pisa's ancient tradition of imperial cosmopolitanism - �Saracens and Franks' (and southern Italians, and, most importantly for Bor­chardt, Germans) had once trafficked in its Southern Bank[765] [766] By the time Atlantic colonialism became a profitable enterprise two centuries later and two countries to the west (the conquest of the Canary Islands, which inaugu­rated it, resembled uncannily Pisa's original conquest of the Balearic group), Pisa was long forgotten.65 The city had turned its back to the sea.}

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