Biography

Benoît Maréchaux holds a PhD in Economic History from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (2017). Previously, he obtained an MA Degree in European History from the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris).
Benoît is an economic historian of Early Modern Europe, with a particular interest in Mediterranean studies. His research explores the nexus between naval institutions and economic expansion in Early Modern Europe. It aims to reconsider mercantilism by emphasizing the diversity of economic institutions that coexisted in pre-industrial Europe.
In his PhD dissertation, Benoît explored the relationship between naval institutions, outsourcing of war and international finance in the Early Modern Mediterranean, developing his research on the Genoese naval entrepreneurs who administrated galleys for the Hispanic Monarchy and used them to transport silver in the Mediterranean during the 16th-17th centuries.
As a Max Weber Fellow, Benoît intends to work on a book manuscript provisionally titled ‘Managing galleys for the Spanish Empire: the Genoese Naval Enterprise of Marco Centurione (1612-1621)’. He will also deepen and disseminate his research on the naval foundations of Genoese financial capitalism. Lastly, he plans to lay the foundations of his new project (‘Varieties of mercantilism’) that deals with a comparative analysis between the naval institutions of the pre-modern European economies.
Since 2010, Benoît has taught Early Modern History, Historical Methodology and World Economic History at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (in a Master’s programme in History) and at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (in undergraduate programmes in Economics and Business Management).