Bank of Saint George
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bank or Company of Saint George (Italian: Ufficio di San Giorgio in Genoa or Casa di San Giorgio) was a financial institution of the Republic of Genoa. Founded in 1407,[citation needed] it is one of the oldest chartered banks in Europe, if not the world. The bank's headquarters were at the Palazzo San Giorgio, which was built in the 13th century by order of Guglielmo Boccanegra, uncle of Simone Boccanegra, the first Doge of Genoa.
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[edit] Organization
A number of prominent Genoese families were involved in the establishment and governance of the Bank, including the House of Grimaldi.
The Bank was governed by four consuls who administered its finances and directed investments.[1] Because the Republic's ruling oligarchs were normally prominent in Bank politics, it is often difficult to determine where the Bank's influence ended and the Republic's began.[2]
[edit] Operations
Many of Genoa's overseas territories were governed either directly or indirectly by the Bank. In 1453 the Republic handed over governance of Corsica, Gazaria, and a number of other possessions to Bank officials, though over the course of the fifteenth century the Republic gradually reclaimed many of its territories from Bank control.[3] The Taman peninsula remained in the control of the de Ghisolfi family, but the princes of that clan now reported to the Bank.
The Bank lent considerable sums of money to many rulers throughout Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, gaining widespread influence. Ferdinand and Isabella maintained accounts there, as did Christopher Columbus. Charles V was heavily in debt to the Bank during much of his reign. Niccolò Machiavelli maintained that the Bank's dominion over Genoa made possible the creation of a "republic more worthy of memory than the Venetian."[4]
In the seventeenth century the Bank became heavily involved in maritime trade, and for a time competed with such concerns as the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company.
[edit] Sources
- Gevurtz, Franklin A. "The Historical and Political Origins of the Corporate Board of Directors." The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2004.
- Kirk, Thomas A. Genoa and the Sea: Policy and Power in an Early Modern Maritime Republic, 1559-1684 (The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science). Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2005.
- Tai, Emily. "Restitution and the Definition of a Pirate: The Case of Sologrus de Nigro." Mediterranean Historical Review. Volume 19, Number 2 (December 2004). Routledge.
