ALFONSO THE MAGNAJ'\IMOUS AND THE FALL OF ANJOUalso obvious that the picture is one of light and shade, the
lightest part by far being the success story that was fifteenth-
century Valencia, of which more presently. Barcelona's popu-
lation plummeted in the late fifteenth century, to about
75,000 in 1483, but this was at the end of a trying period
of civil war. Until the 14 70s the keynote of Catalan economic
life was crisis rather than decline. When Alfonso of Aragon
conquered Naples in the 1440s he did so in the face of tough
Florentine opposition; the Florentines had a strong hold on
the economy of Naples. They were mostly kicked out, and
it is striking how rapidly and successfully the Catalans filled
the gap, becoming within very few years the largest group
of foreign merchants in the city, and completely dominat-
ing its textile trade; they also traded intensively to Palermo,
in Sicily, Alghero, in Sardinia, and to areas outside the
Aragonese political orbit such as Rhodes. Out of 1,981 voy-
ages recorded in Barcelona between^1428 and 1493, Sicily
attracted 459 visits for trade purposes, about one-quarter
of the grand total, with Palermo attracting just under half
(220) of the Sicilian voyages. Sardinia attracted^334 visits, of
which over half ( 186) were to the Catalan base at Alghero
or L'Alguer. The kingdom of Naples scores 212, of which
137 were directed at Naples itself; the island of Rhodes, an
important base for the Levant trade, scored 129. Some his-
torians, such as the eminent Italian scholar Mario del Treppo,
have argued that Alfonso was seeking to create a western
Mediterranean 'Common Market' in the lands he ruled.^40
The fifteenth century was a period of massive readjust-
ment rather than of headlong economic decline. Old trad-
ing centres, including some of the great Flemish cities, had
to change or die. So too in the Catalan world it was some-
times new areas that rose to prominence, areas that could,
for example, respond rapidly to the fundamental changes
in the pattern of demand that followed the population losses
- M. del Treppo, I mercanti catalani e l'espansione della Corona d'Aragona
nel secolo XV (Naples, 1972); cf. C. Carrere, Barcelone centre economique
a l'epoque des difficultes 1380-1462,^2 vols (Paris/The Hague, 1967),
which points part of the way in the same direction. The old approach
of P. Vilar, 'Le declin catalan au bas Moyen Age', E>tudios de Historia
moderna, 6 ( 1956-59), pp. 1-68, dominates that of J.H. Elliott, Imperial
Spain 1469-1716 (London, 1963), pp. 24-30, but cannot now be
accepted.