Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Neapolitan Banks in the Context of Early Modern Public Banks

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Financial Innovation and Resilience

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance ((PSHF))

Abstract

I examine the Neapolitan public banks, a group of non-profit institutions that emerged in the late sixteenth century, in the context of the early public banks that existed elsewhere in early modern Europe. In terms of size and stability, they compare well with their peers, in spite of a difficult political and economic environment. They were also remarkably financially advanced for their time. Their success is likely due to their ownership structure, governance and well-managed relationship with the monarchical authorities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    I draw largely on previous work (Roberds and Velde 2016a, b, c) and refer the interested reader to the works cited therein, as well as to the surveys of Van Dillen (1934) and Ugolini (2017).

  2. 2.

    Less prominent institutions nevertheless arose elsewhere, such as in Palermo (in 1552), Milan (in 1599) and Rome (see the contributions in this volume by Luigi Balletta, Francesco Balletta and Eduardo Nappi; Giuseppe De Luca and Marcella Lorenzini; and Luciano Pezzolo).

  3. 3.

    See Hernández Esteve (2002) for a summary of the literature and a comparison with Naples.

  4. 4.

    On the history of the banks, in addition to the contributions in this volume by Costabile and Nappi, Balletta, Balletta and Nappi, and Avallone and Salvemini, see Somma (1860), Nisco (1866), Petroni (1871), Filangieri (1940), and Balletta (2008) and the overviews in Di Somma (1960) and De Rosa (2001, 2002). The documents in Tortora (1890) are particularly rich. On the securities (fedi) issued by the banks, see Ajello (1882) and Demarco (1985) as well as Palmieri (1905) and L. De Simone (1922) for later aspects; on the banks’ internal structure and accounting, see Rocco (1785), Di Somma (1960), Avallone (1991) and Demarco (1996). Studies of specific banks include De Rosa (1955), Di Somma (1960), E. De Simone (1974) and Avallone (1995). On public finance see Bianchini (1859), Calabria (1991), Bulgarelli Lukacs (1993) and De Rosa (1997, 1998). Published statutes are in Vario (1772) and Giustiniani (1803–1804); see especially the titles De Bancis, De Literis Cambii, De Monetis, De Nummularis.

  5. 5.

    When Carlo VII succeeded his brother as King Carlos III of Spain, he left the kingdom to his younger son Ferdinando I, who ruled until 1825 except during the French occupations of 1799 and 1806–1815. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Naples and Sicily) was annexed by Italy in 1860.

  6. 6.

    Many early authors thought that its foundation was a consequence of the expulsion of the Jews from Naples by Charles V, but this has been disproved (Tortora 1890, 3–11). Similar institutions had been created throughout Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (see Barile 2012 for a recent survey).

  7. 7.

    Filangieri (1940, 14) and Demarco and Nappi (1985) say that the original document is not known and the motivations unclear.

  8. 8.

    Some documents (Tortora 1890, 64–65) suggest that Annunziata did not operate its own bank at the time but used a private banker and even agreed in 1580 to use only the bank of the Pietà for a period of three years.

  9. 9.

    I use each bank’s “circolazione” series (Balletta 2008) and interpolate missing observations.

  10. 10.

    There is a curious amount of variability in published estimates of the population of Naples. I have followed Muto (2013, 43); to his figures, I added an estimate of 400,000 right before the plague of 1656 and 200,000 right after (Fusco 2009) and interpolated to get annual estimates.

  11. 11.

    The Neapolitan term is correria (Tortora 1890, 169; D’Ambra 1873, 145).

  12. 12.

    The small coins, which were slightly overvalued were demonetized and bought by the mint at the new standard net of minting costs, so that a 10 per cent loss would be expected if they had been of full weight. Incredibly, their silver content fell short by two thirds, either because of extreme (!) clipping or else counterfeiting.

  13. 13.

    It seems that this was later modified by the next Viceroy (Tortora 1890, 187–190) to 40 per cent for deposits made between July 1622 and February 1623. There were additional claw-back provisions for deposits and transfers made in January and February 1622, widely believed to have been made in anticipation of the imminent reform, and there were suspicions that the banks accepted deposits of small coins even after the reform.

  14. 14.

    This measure seemed to open a twenty-year-long debt default (Calabria 1991, 128–129). The principal sums were not reduced, but interest payments were withheld frequently (continuously from 1630 to 1642) by a third or two thirds (Foscari 2006, 264–268).

  15. 15.

    “Omniaque mala ex Bancheriis provenere, ex causa mutui, quod particularibus faciebant, pro concursu negotiantium in eis.” Nihil novi sub sole…

  16. 16.

    The fraud may have involved more than him; the fact that he died in prison two weeks after his arrest “trying to escape” suggests that he may have known too much (Tortora 1890, 88).

  17. 17.

    Senior employees were required to put up bond money; in addition, they were personally liable up to the values of their estates (Avallone 2017).

  18. 18.

    Rocco (1785, 2:23) explains the manner in which sequesters were placed on deposits when ordered by a judge.

  19. 19.

    Final discharge took another two centuries, and the association of the creditors of A.G.P. was only dissolved in 1880.

  20. 20.

    There is some disagreement over the exact date: Filangieri (1940, 93–94) places it in 1654, Di Somma (1960, 4, 71) in the mid-seventeenth century and no later than 1650, Avallone (1995, 14) in the 1630s at the latest, Sabatini (2013, 96) in 1606. After the 1622 crisis, a banking committee (Giunta dei Banchi) was formed by the Viceroy to oversee the ensuing liquidation, initially composed of six magistrates and six merchants, then six magistrates only (De Rosa 1987, 151), but it seems that this committee was ad hoc.

  21. 21.

    A third threat fought off by the city came in the 1720s, under Austrian administration, when a Banco di San Carlo was opened somewhat on the model of the Viennese bank (see the contribution by Clemens Jobst in this volume), though its main purpose seems to have been as a vehicle for a leveraged buyout of the state’s mortgaged assets (Di Vittorio 2009).

  22. 22.

    Demarco (1996, 47) argues that only a licensed bank could issue a fede di credito, although the early examples seem to run counter to that claim.

  23. 23.

    “I cambiamonete impegnano ne’ Banchi le monete forestierie, ed aspettano il tempo, onde si avanzi l’alaggio a loro profitto; e sovente è accaduto, che tali pegni per esser bassato l’alaggio, o altro, si sono trovati di minor valore della somma prestatavi, a danno de’ Banchi.” He further cites the case of one Leonardo Perillo who left Popolo with a large quantity of thalers.

  24. 24.

    There is the possibility that the balances frozen on the libri dei due terzi were discounted, but they were eventually redeemed.

References

  • Ajello, Pietro. 1882. I depositi, le fedi di credito e le polize dei banchi di Napoli. Il Filangieri 7: 641–665, 713–755.

    Google Scholar 

  • Avallone, Paola. 1991. L’organizzazione contabile dei banchi pubblici napoletani tra XVI e XVIII secolo. In L’Impresa: Industria Commercio Banca Secc. XIII–XVIII, ed. Simonetta Cavaciocchi, 371–383. Atti delle “Settimane di Studi” e altri Convegni 22. Florence: Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “F. Datini”, F. Le Monnier.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1995. Stato e Banchi Pubblici a Napoli a metà del ’700. Naples: Edizioni scientifiche Italiane.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013. Bankruptcy in the Kingdom of Naples: The Case of the Public Banks (17th to 18th Centuries). In The History of Bankruptcy: Economic, Social and Cultural Implications in Early Modern Europe, ed. Thomas Max Safley, 97–107. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2017. Accounting Crimes: The Case of the Neapolitan Public Banks (17th–18th Centuries). Accounting Historians Journal 44 (1) (June): 5–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bairoch, Paul, and Jean Batou et Pierre Chèvre. 1988. La population des villes européennes, 800-1850: banque de données et analyse sommaire des résultats. Geneva: Droz.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balletta, Francesco. 2008. La circolazione della moneta fiduciaria a Napoli nel Seicento e nel Settecento (1587–1805). Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barile, Nicola Lorenzo. 2012. Renaissance Monti di Pietà in Modern Scholarship: Themes, Studies, and Historiographic Trends. Renaissance and Reformation 35 (3): 85–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bianchini, Lodovico. 1859. Storia delle finanze del Regno di Napoli. Naples: Stamperia Reale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biblia, Fabrizio. 1621. Discorso sopra l’aggiustamento della moneta e cambii del Regno di Napoli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bulgarelli Lukacs, Alessandra. 1993. L’imposta diretta nel regno di Napoli in età moderna. Milan: Franco Angeli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calabria, Antonio. 1991. The Cost of Empire: The Finances of the Kingdom of Naples in the Time of Spanish Rule. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campanelli, Marcella. 2002. Chiesa ed assistenza pubblica a Napoli nel Cinquecento. In Gli Inizi della circolazione della cartamoneta e i banchi pubblici napoletani nella società del loro tempo, ed. Luigi De Rosa, 146–168. Naples: Istituto Banco di Napoli Fondazione.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cano Borrego, Pedro Damián. 2014. Una aproximación al estudio de los proyectos de creación de un banco nacional en España durante la edad moderna. Pecvnia 19: 157–179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Da Silva, José-Gentil. 1969. Banque et Crédit en Italie au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Klincksieck.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Ambra, Raffaele. 1873. Vocabolario napolitano-toscano domestico di arti e mestieri.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Rosa, Luigi. 1955. Una struttura bancaria napoletana alla vigilia dell’insurrezione di Masaniello: Il Banco dei Poveri dal 1641 al 1646. Bollettino dell’Archivio storico del Banco di Napoli 9: 93–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1987. Il Mezzogiorno spagnolo tra crescita e decadenza. Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1997. L’Aziende e le Finanze. In Spagna e Mezzogiorno d’Italia nell’eta della transizione: Stato, finanza ed economia (1650–1760), ed. Luigi De Rosa and Luis Miguel Enciso Recio, 127–148. Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1998. Immobility and Change in Public Finance in the Kingdom of Naples, 1649–1806. Journal of European Economic History 27 (Spring): 9–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2001. The Beginnings of Paper-Money Circulation: The Neapolitan Public Banks (1540–1650). The Journal of European Economic History 30 (3): 497–532.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2002. Gli Inizi della circolazione della cartamoneta e i banchi pubblici Napoletani. In Gli Inizi della circolazione della cartamoneta e i banchi pubblici napoletani nella società del loro tempo, ed. Luigi De Rosa, 437–461. Naples: Istituto Banco di Napoli Fondazione.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Simone, Ennio. 1974. Il Banco della Pietà di Napoli, 1734–1806. Arte Tipografica.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Simone, Luigi. 1922. La Fede di credito. Naples: Borrelli.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Stefano, Mario. 1940. Banchi e vicende monetarie nel Regno di Napoli: 1600–1625. Livorno: Il Tirreno.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demarco, Domenico. 1996. Il banco di Napoli: Dalle Casse di deposito alla fioritura settecentesca. Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2000. Il banco di Napoli: L’Archivio storico: La Grammatica delle scritture. Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demarco, Domenico, and Eduardo Nappi. 1985. Nuovi documenti sulle origini e sui titoli del Banco di Napoli. Revue internationale d’histoire de la banque 30–31: 1–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denzel, Markus A. 2010. Handbook of World Exchange Rates, 1590–1914. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Di Somma, Carlo. 1960. Il Banco dello Spirito Santo dalle origini al 1664. Naples: Arte Tipografica.

    Google Scholar 

  • Di Vittorio, Antonio. 2009. Il Banco di S. Carlo in Napoli ed il riformismo asburgico. In Wirtschaftlische habsburgische Themen und Probleme zwischen Wien und Neapel, 18. Jahrhundert, 15–39. Innsbruck: Athesia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrandino, Vittoria. 2009. La clientela dei banchi pubblici napoletani al tempo di Carlo di Borbone (1734–1759). Rivista di storia finanziaria 22 (1): 57–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Filangieri, Riccardo. 1940. I Banchi di Napoli dalle origini alla costituzione del Banco delle Due Sicilie. Naples: Tipografia degli Artigianelli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foscari, Giuseppe. 2006. Stato, politica fiscale e contribuenti nel Regno di Napoli, 1610–1648. Rubbettino: Soveria Mannelli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fusco, Idamaria. 2009. La peste del 1656–58 nel Regno di Napoli: diffusione e mortalità. Popolazione e Storia 10 (1): 115–138.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giustiniani, Lorenzo. 1803–1804. Nuova collezione delle prammatiche del regno di Napoli. Naples: Stamperia Simoniana.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, Earl J. 1949. Spanish Banking Schemes before 1700. Journal of Political Economy 57 (2) (April): 134–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hernández Esteve, Esteban. 2002. I Banchi pubblici napoletani a confronto con la banca pubblica della corona d’Aragona. In Gli Inizi della circolazione della cartamoneta e i banchi pubblici napoletani nella società del loro tempo, ed. Luigi De Rosa, 462–507. Naples: Istituto Banco di Napoli Fondazione.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malanima, Paolo. 2011. The Long Decline of a Leading Economy: GDP in Central and Northern Italy, 1300–1913. European Review of Economic History 15 (2) (August): 169–219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muto, Giovanni. 2013. Urban Structures and Population. In A Companion to Early Modern Naples, ed. Brill, 35–62. Leiden, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nisco, Niccola. 1866. Il Banco di Napoli. Napoli: Tipografia del Giornale di Napoli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palermo, Francesco. 1846. Narrazioni e documenti sulla storia del regno di Napoli dall’anno 1522 al 1667. Florence: Gio. Pietro Vieusseux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palmieri, Nicola. 1905. La fede di credito del Banco di Napoli. Roma: Officina poligrafica italiana.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parrino, Domenico Antonio. 1770. Teatro eroico e politico de’ governi de’ Vicere del regno di Napoli. Giovanni Gravier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peri, Giovanni Domenico. 1672. Il Negotiante. Venice: G. G. Herz.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petroni, Giulio. 1871. De’ banchi di Napoli. Naples: Raimondi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quinn, Stephen, and William Roberds. 2015. Responding to a Shadow Banking Crisis: The Lessons of 1763. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 47 (6) (September): 1149–1176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberds, William, and François R. Velde. 2016a. Early Public Banks I: Ledger-Money Banks. In Money in the Legal Western Tradition: Middle Ages to Bretton Woods, ed. David Fox and Wolfgang Ernst, 321–355. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2016b. Early Public Banks II: Banks of Issue. In Money in the Legal Western Tradition: Middle Ages to Bretton Woods, ed. David Fox and Wolfgang Ernst, 465–488. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2016c. The Descent of Central Banks. In Central Banks at a Crossroads: What Can We Learn from History? ed. Michael D. Bordo, Øyvind Eitrheim, Marc Flandreau, and Jan F. Qvigstad, 18–61. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rocco, Michele. 1785. De’ Banchi di Napoli e della lor ragione. Naples: Fratelli Raimondi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabatini, Gaetano. 2013. Economy and Finance in Early Modern Naples. In A Companion to Early Modern Naples, ed. Tommaso Astarita, 89–108. Leiden: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sargent, Thomas J., and François R. Velde. 2002. The Big Problem of Small Change. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sieveking, Heinrich Johhann. 1899. Genueser Finanzwesen mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Casa di S. Giorgio. Freiburg in Brisgau: J. C. B. Mohr.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silvestri, Alfonso. 1950. Sui banchieri pubblici napoletani nella prima metà del cinquecento. Bollettino dell’Archivio storico del Banco di Napoli 2: 22–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1951a. Sui banchieri pubblici napoletani dall’avvento di Filippo II al trono alla costituzione del monopolio. Bollettino dell’Archivio storico del Banco di Napoli 3: 1–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1951b. Sui banchieri pubblici nella città di Napoli dalla costituzione del monopolio alla fine dei banchi dei mercanti. Bollettino dell’Archivio storico del Banco di Napoli 4: 1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1953. Sull’attività bancaria napoletana durante il periodo aragonese. Bollettino dell’Archivio storico del Banco di Napoli 6: 80–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Somma, Aniello. 1860. Trattato de’ banchi nazionali del Regno delle Due Sicilie. Antonio Cons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tassone, Gian Domenico. 1632. Observationes jurisdictionales politicae, ac practicae ad regiam pragmaticam sanctionem editam de anno 1617, quae dicitur de antefato. Napoli: Secondini Roncalioli.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tedde de Lorca, Pedro. 1988. El Banco de San Carlos (1782–1829). Madrid: Alianza Editorial.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tortora, Eugenio. 1882. Raccolta di documenti storici e delle leggi e regole concernenti il Banco di Napoli. Naples: F. Giannini.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1890. Nuovi documenti per la storia del Banco di Napoli. Naples: A. Bellisario.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ugolini, Stefano. 2017. The Evolution of Central Banking: Theory and History. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Van Dillen, Johannes Gerard (ed.). 1934. History of the Principal Public Banks. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vario, Domenico Alfeno. 1772. Pragmaticae, Edicta, Decreta, Interdicta Regiaeque Sanctiones Regni Neapolitani. Naples: Antonio Cervone.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    François R. Velde

Authors
  1. François R. Velde
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Lilia Costabile

  2. University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Larry Neal

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Velde, F.R. (2018). Neapolitan Banks in the Context of Early Modern Public Banks. In: Costabile, L., Neal, L. (eds) Financial Innovation and Resilience. Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90248-7_10

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90248-7_10

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90247-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90248-7

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation