The Provençal economy is the most sparsely documented theme in the corpus, with only 11 dates, divided almost evenly between the Middle Ages and the early modern period, 2 and 5, while Antiquity and the contemporary era count only 1 and 3. The transfer of the Ostia mint to Arles in 313, Jacques Cœur settling at Marseille in 1444, then the demographic growth of Marseille under the Second Empire and the filling of the Serre-Ponçon dam in 1955: each date marks a material turning point rather than a continuity.
This map gathers these economic milestones, at Marseille, Toulon and Arles, where figures such as Colbert, Richelieu or Casaulx appear.
What the corpus attaches to this theme
Places most present : Marseille, Provence, Toulon, Aix, Rhône, Arles, Italie, Avignon
Figures most present : Boscawen, Annibal, Charles Ier d'Anjou, René d'Anjou, Casaulx, Guise, Richelieu, Colbert
Antiquity
Neolithic
Earliest known evidence of sheep domestication, at Châteauneuf-lès-Martigues. In the late Neolithic, megalithic burials appear, including the hypogea of Arles, along with the first perched and enclosed settlements
594 BC
Ionian sailors from Phocaea land in a cove of the Ligurian coast and found Massalia
From the year 12
Construction of the via Julia Augusta, the major route of the network, from Vada Sabatia near Savona to Fréjus by way of Vintimille, La Turbie and Cimiez
313
Transfer of the Ostia mint to Arles
Read the period: Antiquity
Middle Ages
1291
Fall of Acre, weakening of relations with the Levant
1444
Installation of Jacques Cœur at Marseille, revival of trade with the Levant
Read the period: Middle Ages
Early modern period
1573
Installation of the first printing press in Provence, at Orange
1630
Promulgation of the edict of the Élus, substituting royal agents for the Estates in the levying of taxes
1669
Nicolas Arnoul has the new town centre of Marseille built (Cours, Canebière), an edict institutes the free port
18 December 1723
Judgment of the Admiralty on the cargo of the Grand Saint-Antoine and its insurance, revealing that it belonged to the sitting échevin J. B. Estelle and his associates
from 1762
The affair of Father La Vallette's bankruptcy leads to the suppression of the Society of Jesus
1788 to 1789
The frost on the olive trees during the winter aggravates the Provençal economic crisis
Read the period: Early modern period
Contemporary period
1848
The railway connects Avignon to Marseille
1851 to 1871
Marseille grows from 195,000 to 312,000 inhabitants under the Second Empire, before reaching half a million at the start of the twentieth century
1955
The Serre-Ponçon dam begins filling
Read the period: Contemporary period
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