Credit and Poverty in Early Modern Venice (original) (raw)
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The Informal Economy of Credit in Early Modern Venice
The Historical Journal, 2018
Evidence from the Piovego, the fraud magistracy of early modern Venice, offers a critical perspective on the documentary record of credit and the ways in which this was used in practice. Although it was formally illegal to charge interest on personal loans, a variety of legal fictions were employed to evade the ban. Such fictions significantly reduced the transparency and certainty of exchange, pushing personal loans into a world of semi-legality. This was a ‘baroque economy’, in which people were aware of the potential discrepancy between surface form and underlying substance, and private agreements might be contested on grounds of substantive fairness. The ‘hidden transcripts’ presented by litigants indicate that the formal record must be interpreted through a ‘thick description’ that considers its role as a resource in a broader process of negotiation. Far from being a ‘market’, characterized by price competition, choice, and transparency, the informal economy of credit was embed...
Financing in Europe. Evolution, Coexistence and Complementarity of Lending Practices from the Middle Ages to Modern Times, ed. by D. Coffman, C. Lorandini, M. Lorenzini. London: Palgrave, 2018
This chapter analyses how merchants and political institutions cope with failures and defaults that compromise credit relationships in an early modern trading center. Focussing on the structure of financing business and trade in Venice and on the legal framework that protects creditors, the essay links the widespread form of trading company (the temporary partnership) to the large recourse to arbitration procedures for solving disputes, and to the lesser efficiency of institutional and legal frameworks traditionally securing credit rights in Venice. ‘Credit, Defaults and Institutions in Early Modern Venice’ concludes with the hypothesis that the changing commercial environment and the spread of temporary societies reduce the protective strenght of Venetian institutions and increase instability in financing international trade.
Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, in defining the characteristics of the origins and evolution of the Monte di Pietà, "invention" of the late Middle Ages, stressed that this institution was to be considered "more things together": a minorite ideation, a charity institution, an economic and credit initiative. In light of the many studies that have been made on this institution, both from the theoretical point of view and from the practical point of view, these views do not exclude each other. And all these aspects characterized the Monti di Pietà which, in the form of Monti di Pegni (pawnshops) and Monti Frumentari (weath brokers), made their appearance in the Kingdom of Naples much later compared to central Italy, when the theoretical issues, especially those related to the legality of the request of interest, had been overcome. But how were they considered? Charitable institutions or credit institutions? Once refuted the relationship between the expulsion of the Jews and the birth of the Monte di Pietà in Naples, what, instead, pushed a group of individuals to offer pawnbroking at no interest in a city that in the mid-sixteenth century was third in population after London and Paris? And starting in the early seventeenth century, what then motivated brotherhoods, local authorities, individuals to open Monti di Pietà in urban areas and Monti Frumentari in rural areas in all provinces of the Kingdom? What role did they play in the economy of the South over two and a half centuries, until the Kingdom became a part of the national state? What is the relationship between the concepts of charity, for which these institutions were regarded as charitable institutions, and of credit as they essentially did not practice acts of liberality lending money or wheat at interest?
A World of Small Objects: Probate Inventories, Pawns, and Domestic Life in Early Modern Venice
Renaissance and Reformation Renaissance Et Reforme, 2013
La mise en gage d'objets de valeur était commune dans les sociétés des débuts de la modernité, où elle était utilisée par toutes les classes sociales pour obtenir des liquidités, ou comme moyen de paiement. L'absence à Venise de prêteurs sur gage officiels tels que les Monti di Pietà faisait en sorte que les prêts sur gage et la circulation de l'argent en lien avec cette pratique étaient centrés sur le Ghetto. Les banquiers juifs avaient le droit de recevoir en gage des objets en échange de prêts, et délivraient des reçus officiels (bollettino) faisant état de ces transactions. Ils contrôlaient ainsi une proportion importante du marché de seconde main à Venise. Ces reçus étaient conservés avec beaucoup de soin, étant donné qu'ils permettaient aux emprunteurs de récupérer leur bien après remboursement de la somme empruntée et des intérêts. Ils sont souvent mentionnés dans les inventaires officiels comme représentants des objets réels mais entreposés temporairement dans un autre endroit. Cet article analyse les reçus, les objets qu'ils représentent et leur possesseurs, retracés dans un corpus de près de 1000 inventaires couvrant la période 1511-1600, tiré des Archivio di Stato de Venise.