Una fiera senza luogo. Was Bisenzone an offshore capital market in sixteenth-century Italy?

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Una fiera senza luogo. Was Bisenzone an offshore capital market in sixteenth-century Italy?

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Luciano Pezzolo () (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Ca’ Foscari)
Giuseppe Tattara (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Ca’ Foscari)

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Abstract

This paper discusses how Genoese bankers collected money at exchange fairs. This money was then lent to the King of Spain - through the asientos - from the mid-sixteenth to the early seventeenth centuries. Genoese bankers raised capital at the exchange fairs , which were typical short-term credit mechanism, where foreign bills of exchange were discounted over a three-month period. The Genoese funded long-term obligations by means of short term loans which meant they were able to enforce payment to the King and at the same time successfully manage the supply of finance from a large number of easily substitutable markets, located in different states. The Bisenzone fair of exchange was the forerunner to an efficient, widely integrated international capital market where Genoese pre-eminence was firmly established and which the Genoese kept firmly under their control. The success of the Bisenzone fairs of exchange directly challenges the theory which suggests that the laws against usury restrained the development of capital markets in early modern Italy.

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Paper provided by University of Venice "Ca' Foscari", Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 2006_25.

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Length: 35 pages
Date of creation: 2006
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:ven:wpaper:2006_25

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
N20 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - General, International, or Comparative
N23 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Europe: Pre-1913
N43 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, and Regulation - - - Europe: Pre-1913

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Pesaran, M. H. & Shin, Y. & Smith, R. J., 1996. "Testing for the 'Existence of a Long-run Relationship'," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 9622, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
Neal, Larry, 2000. "How it all began: the monetary and financial architecture of Europe during the first global capital markets, 1648 1815," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(02), pages 117-140, October. [Downloadable!]
James Conklin, 1998. "The Theory of Sovereign Debt and Spain under Philip II," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(3), pages 483-513, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Raymond de Roover, 1944. "What is Dry Exchange? A Contribution to the Study of English Mercantilism," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52, pages 250. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Greif, Avner, 2000. "The fundamental problem of exchange: A research agenda in Historical Institutional Analysis," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(03), pages 251-284, December. [Downloadable!]

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