The Venetian Money Market: Banks, Panics, and the Public Debt, 1200-1500

by Reinhold C. Mueller

Overview

The long awaited conclusion to the magisterial Money and Banking in Medieval and Renaissance Venice.

Originally published in 1997. In 1985 Frederic C. Lane and Reinhold C. Mueller published the magisterial Money and Banking in Medieval and Renaissance Venice, volume 1: Coins and Moneys of Account. Now, after ten years of further research and writing, Reinhold Mueller completes the work that he and the late Frederic Lane began. The history of money and banking in Venice is crucial to an understanding of European economic history. Because of its strategic location between East and West, Venice rapidly rose to a position of preeminence in Mediterranean trade. To keep trade moving from London to Constantinople and beyond, Venetian merchants and bankers created specialized financial institutions to serve private entrepreneurs and public administrators: deposit banks, foreign exchange banks, a grain office, and a bureau of the public debt. This new book clarifies Venice's pivotal role in Italian and international banking and finance. It also sets banking—and panics—in the context of more generalized and recurrent crises involving territorial wars, competition for markets, and debates over interest rates and the question of usury.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421431420
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	746
File size:	62 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Reinhold C. Mueller is associate professor of history at the University of Venice, Italy. He is co-author, with Frederic C. Lane, of Money and Banking in Medieval and Renaissance Venice and author of numerous studies on Venetian social and economic history.

Reinhold C. Mueller is associate professor of history at the University of Venice, Italy. He is co-author, with Frederic C. Lane, of Money and Banking in Medieval and Renaissance Venice and author of numerous studies on Venetian social and economic history.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Preface
List of Abbreviations
Part I. Local Banks and Bankers: The Institutional Side
Chapter 1. From Moneychanging to Deposit Banking
Chapter 2. The Supervision and Regulation of Banking
Chapter 3. The Organization and Operation of Banking Enterprises
Part II. The Vagaries of Deposit Banking: A History Seen Through Panics, Bankruptcies, and Liquidations
Chapter 4. Bank Failures in the Trecento
Chapter 5. Bank Failures in the Quattrocento
Chapter 6. The Making of the Panic of 1499-1500
Part III. The Money Market and Foreign Exchange
Chapter 7. Florentine Merchant Bankers and Their Community
Chapter 8. Exchange and the Money Market
Part IV. Public Debt and Private Wealth: The Floating Debt
Chapter 9. The Grain Office: A "Swiss Bank" for the Nest Eggs ofTerraferma Lords, a Quasi-Public Bank for Venetians
Chapter 10. Bank Loans to the State in the Fifteenth Century
Part V. Public Debt and Private Wealth: Forced Loans and Marketable Credits
Chapter 11. Venice's Monte Vecchio: An Overview
Chapter 12. Criteria Employed in Assessing Patrimonies
Chapter 13. Family and Finance: Forced Loans and the Open Market at Work
Conclusion
Appendixes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Richard Goldthwaite

I cannot emphasize enough the originality of this research for Italian studies in general as well as its painstaking and virtuoso qualities. The book will stand as the unavoidable model for the scholars who eventually do the history of banking and the public debt in other major commercial capitals.

From the Publisher

I cannot emphasize enough the originality of this research for Italian studies in general as well as its painstaking and virtuoso qualities. The book will stand as the unavoidable model for the scholars who eventually do the history of banking and the public debt in other major commercial capitals.
—Richard Goldthwaite, The Johns Hopkins University

Editorial Reviews

Mueller (history, U. of Venice, Italy) here completes the work he began with the late Frederic C. Lane in their 1985 "Money and Banking in Medieval and Renaissance Venice, Volume 1: Coins and Moneys of Account". He clarifies the city-state's role in Italian and international banking and finance, and sets banking and panics in the general and recurring crises involving territorial wars, competition for markets, and debates over interest rates and the sticky question of usury. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

This is the kind of book that is all too rare in modern historical scholarship. It is at once meticulously researched, granitically organized, perceptively argued, and eminently readable. The last is no mean achievement when one considers the subject matter. Banks, investments, credit, and debt may be important for our understanding of medieval and Renaissance Italy, but as anyone who has balanced a checkbook or read an annuity report can attest, it can all be dreadfully boring. Not so here.
—Thomas FMadden, Sixteenth Century Journal

This volume is an outstanding example of meticulous, readable, wide-ranging scholarship . . . [It] is careful . . . brilliant study.
—John E. Dotson, Speculum

This book is a mine of information and a most reliable guide to the Venetian Money Market. For many years to come it will constitute an essential tool for an serious study related to the history of Venice and its economy.
—Benjamin Arbel, Mediterranean Historical Review

From the Publisher

This book is a mine of information and a most reliable guide to the Venetian Money Market. For many years to come it will constitute an essential tool for an serious study related to the history of Venice and its economy.

Mediterranean Historical Review - Benjamin Arbel

This is the kind of book that is all too rare in modern historical scholarship. It is at once meticulously researched, granitically organized, perceptively argued, and eminently readable. The last is no mean achievement when one considers the subject matter. Banks, investments, credit, and debt may be important for our understanding of medieval and Renaissance Italy, but as anyone who has balanced a checkbook or read an annuity report can attest, it can all be dreadfully boring. Not so here.

Sixteenth Century Journal - Thomas FMadden

This volume is an outstanding example of meticulous, readable, wide-ranging scholarship . . . [It] is careful . . . brilliant study.

Speculum - John E. Dotson