This article offers some preliminary results of a research on the evolving debate over free ports, the role played in them by Melchiorre Gioia, and the mutual influences between the political economist’s thought and Napoleon’s actions. The debate over free ports provides a useful vantage point for formulating hypotheses on Napoleon’s visions of economic policy – aside from the category of exceptionality given the persistent state of war that characterized his government experience – and on their legacy during the nineteenth century. Gioia, author of Nuovo prospetto delle scienze economiche, is one of the fundamental figures for understanding the political debate over free trade and free ports (many of which concentrated in the Italian area), and therefore Napoleon’s choices.