Assistant Professor of History Corey Tazzara discusses the influence of the Medici dynasty on trade policy in an article for Oxford University Press online. During the 17th century, the Medici established a port in Livorno that was open to foreign merchants and that relaxed rules governing the transit, storage, and taxation of goods. This model spread throughout the region and to the Baltic and the Caribbean isles, eventually informing 19th-century arguments about the virtues of free trade.