Medievalist, historian, premodern Japan, DH, project juggler. @shinpaideshou. She/her. Like my content? 
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The final panelist of our first round of lightning talks is Stephanie Leitzel (History, Harvard University), speaking on “Economies of Color: Global Commerce in Dyes and the Fate of the Italian Textile Industries.” #DGMA19 #GlobalMiddleAges #medievaltwitter 
Leitzel’s pre-circulated paper did a great job in laying out historiographical issues that emerge in discussing premodern “globalization” or “world systems,” particularly challenges to doing global economic history that would see the medieval as an antithesis to capitalism.
Medieval activities end up getting labeled in oppositional ways such as “feudal” or “proto-capitalist.” (My medieval Japan rage toward the term feudalism is bubbling 
) focusing on localism and self-reliance instead of integration and connectivity.
Leitzel’s work looks to the complex system of textile production and exchange through the raw materials (plants, insects, minerals, etc.) that gave them color. 
Supply chains extended from the Mediterranean to South Asia, and eventually the Americas.
Leitzel uses inventories form Harvard’s Medici collection to examine these materials in relation to c. 16th cen Florentine commerce, linking local dye economies to distant producers and consumers, also showing a longer history of existing globalized connections.
The suggestion made is that Leitzel can demonstrate a global commodity center based in Italy. But this leads me to wonder how we define the “center” again—what are the push-pull factors in the exchange?
There are about 174 account books in this collection. 
Leitzel is taking both a quantitative and qualitative approach to her research.pic.twitter.com/Th4ckH3TZs
Leitzel recognizes that it's a bit off-brand to be talking about Florentine trade for de-centering, but at the same time, there's a long global history at hand that isn't just commodity based, but is also financial and social.
Hundreds of journals exist to help flesh out these accounts, including what textiles certain dyes were used to make, whether there were damages to certain materials, forms of payment, etc. This allows Leitzel to also consider local economies on both sides of the exchange.
There's a substantial amount of continuity (perhaps unexpectedly?) between business structures, types of commodities, etc. from the 14th century forward.
There's some incredible source work being done here to consider dye economies from their creation/cultivation to execution in textiles.
One thing I wonder is, is it reductive to consider the finished product (textiles that end up in and then recirculated from Italy), rather than their raw materials, as the defining way to “center” the exchange network?
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