At the time of the birth of the Florentine Chamber of Commerce, the past Renaissance glories were now little more than a memory. In the Tuscany of the 1700s, the economy seemed to be sinking into a phase of stagnation with almost no way out.
The products of Tuscan manufactures were increasingly giving way in the face of fierce competition from the countries of north-western Europe: England, Holland and – above all – France, which was occupying almost all European markets that place of commercial dominance that in previous centuries had belonged to Italy.
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