Cacau, sucre, canyella: conflictivitat gremial entorn de la xocolata en contextos locals i mediterranis (segles XVII-XVIII)

This paper aims to examine the assimilation of chocolate within the Barcelona marketplace, a new colonial commodity, hardly classifiable and without previous regulation that stirred up several disputes. Conflicts between confectioners, druggists, chocolate makers and grocers lead us to reexamine the impact of this new American foodstuff in urban spaces during the second half of the seventeenth century and the first decades of the eighteenth century. Likewise, it was a crucial moment for the integration of chocolate into the eating habits of local people as well as into urban practices of sociability. The analysis of conflicts emerged within retail markets over selling chocolate and its main ingredients (cocoa, sugar, cinnamon) provides new insight into the study of processes of assimilation of colonial commodities in Mediterranean areas; an approach often limited to the Atlantic maritime trade.