The Sicilian Port Towns in the Eighteenth Century: Trade, Social Actors, Infrastructure Improvements and Urban Development

This article aims to highlight the links between the economic and commercial activities that centered on the ports of Sicily's main towns (Palermo, Messina, Trapani) and the development and changes that occurred in their urban fabric in the eighteenth century. In this sense, it emphasizes not only the transformations that took place in urban morphology, but also the cultural changes that occurred as a result of the contact with a commercial network composed of local and foreign merchants (English, French, etc.).