The Romandie lay at the intersection of international trade routes east to west and
north to south.30 The Alpine passes led to an artery which on land followed the
north shore of Lake Geneva or else on water to Geneva itself.31 This artery was
controlled by Savoy, but the dukes’ financial embarrassment latterly obliged them
to mortgage lucrative tolls such as those collected from the customs-post at Nyon,32
which at one point, it seems, was held by Bern.33 From Geneva this route could
either traverse the Jura via the Col de la Faucille into the Franche-Comté or else
pass south-westwards down the river Rhône to Lyon. At Lyon King Louis XI had
sought to create a rival fair to Geneva, which certainly robbed it of some com-
merce, but Geneva retained its importance for Bern, Fribourg, and Solothurn.34
Any decline, as Jean-François Bergier has noted, may rather be attributable to a
30 See map 19 ‘Die grossen Verkehrsstrassen des Mittelalters’ in Hektor Ammann and Karl Schib,
Historischer Atlas der Schweiz, 2nd edn (Aarau, 1958); Jean-François Bergier, ‘Le traffic à travers les
Alpes et les liaisons transalpines du Haut Moyen Âge au XVIIe siècle’, in Pour une histoire des Alpes.
Moyen Âge et Temps Modernes (Aldershot/Brookfield, VT, 1997), 1–72.
31 Hektor Ammann, ‘Zur Geschichte der Westschweiz in savoyischer Zeit’, Zeitschrift für schweiz-
erische Geschichte, 21 (1941), 1–57, here at 33 ff. Both Savoy and Geneva had navies, as did Bern after
- Jean-François Bergier, Genève et l’économie européenne de la Renaissance (École Pratique des
Hautes Études—VIe section: Centre des Recherches Historiques: Affaires et Gens d’Affaires, 29)
(Paris, 1963), 147–8. For Bern’s links south-eastwards to the Valais and the Alpine passes see Marie-
Claude Schöpfer Pfaffen, Verkehrspolitik im Mittelalter. Bernische und wallisische Akteure, Netzwerke
und Strategien (Vorträge und Forschungen, Sonderband 55) (Ostfildern, 2011).
32 Charles Gilliard, ‘Les créanciers bâlois du duc de Savoie’, Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und
Altertumskunde, 42 (1943), 193–208, here at 194 n 2; Oskar Vasella, ‘Der Krieg Berns gegen Savoyen
im Jahre 1536 und die Unterwerfung der savoyischen Territorien durch Bern nach den amtlichen
Aufzeichnungen der bernischen Kanzlei’, Zeitschrift für schweizerische Kirchengeschichte, 29 (1935)
[A], 239–74; 30 (1936) [B], 1–24, 81–106, 201–24, 293–319, here at B 103. The Bernese commis-
sioners in 1536 put the annual toll revenues from Nyon at between 1700 and 3000 fl per annum.
33 According to the memoir of Jean Dufour, presented in October 1509, listing his grievances
against Duke Charles II of Savoy. Armando Tallone (ed.), Parlamento Sabaudo (Accademia Nazionale
dei Lincei: Commissione per gli Atti delle Assemblee Costituzionali Italiene, series I, section 5:
Parlamenti Piemontesi) (Bologna, 1946), XIII, 2: Patria Oltramontana, 6: Assemblee del Paese di Vaud
1480–1536, 201.
34 Bergier, Genève, 412. for Bern see Leonhard von Muralt, ‘Berns westliche Politik zur Zeit der
Reformation’, in Der Historiker und die Geschichte. Festschrift für Leonhard von Muralt, ed. Fritz Büsser,
Hans Helbing, and Peter Stadler (Zürich, 1960), 88–96, here at 91–2, and most recently Bastian
Walter, Informationen, Wissen und Macht. Akteure und Techniken städtischer Außenpolitik: Bern,
Straßburg und Basel im Kontext der Burgunderkriege (1468–1477) (Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und
Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Beiheft 218) (Stuttgart, 2012), 38.
14
The Romandie
A Commercial Crossroads