The Economy of Renaissance Florence

668 Pages·2009·5.72 MB·English

by  Richard A. Goldthwaite

The Economy of Re nais sance Florence
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The Economy of Re nais sance Florence
richard a. goldthwaite
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
©2009 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2009
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
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Library of Congress Cata loging- in- Publication Data
Goldthwaite, Richard A.
The economy of Re nais sance Florence / Richard A. Goldthwaite.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 8018- 8982- 0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN- 10: 0- 8018- 8982- 0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Florence (Italy)—Economic conditions. 2. Renaissance—Italy—Florence.
I. Title.
HC308.F6G64 2008
330.945'51105—dc22 2007052602
A cata log record for this book is available from the British Library.
Title page illustration: This fl orin, in the collection of the Museo Nazionale del
Bargello at Florence (Dep. no. 3206, on deposit from the Museo Archeologico), is
one of the second series, minted sometime between 1252 and 1303. The obverse
bears the lily, the symbol of the city, with the inscription + fl or entia; the reverse
bears the image of Saint John the Baptist, the patron saint of the city, with the
inscription s ioha nnes • b •. The coin has a diameter of 20.8 mm (about two-thirds
that of the illustration) and contains 3.48 grams of gold. Florins of the fi rst series are
very rare, none being in public collections; they differ in the halo of the saint, which
is undecorated, whereas here the halo is beaded along the border. Florins in these
early series do not bear the coat-of-arms of the men who were Masters of the Mint
at the time the coin was issued and therefore cannot be precisely dated.
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contents
List of Tables, Figures, and Maps ix
Preface xi
Introduction: The Commercial Revolution 3
Economic Growth and Development in Italy to 1300 3
Trade with the Levant 3
Links to the North 8
The Tuscan Towns 12
Florence 23
Rise to Predominance 23
The Dynamics of Growth 30
part i international merchant banking
1 The Network 37
Per for mance 38
Dynamics of Change 38
Periodization 42
The Era of the Florin 48
Balance of Payments 57
Structures 63
The Firm 64
The Conduct of Business 80
Interfi rm Relations 104
The Center 114
Florence and Regional Trade 114
Florence as International Emporium 120
2 The Shifting Geography of Commerce 126
Northwestern Eu rope 126
Naples and Southern Italy 136
vi Contents
The Western Mediterranean 143
A Transport Revolution 143
The Iberian Peninsula 152
Southern France 162
The Later Sixteenth Century 167
Central Italy and Rome 170
Venice, the Adriatic, and the Levant 175
Central Eu rope 194
3 Banking and Finance 203
Banking 204
Deposits and Loans 205
International Transfer and Exchange 210
The Bill of Exchange as Credit Instrument 217
The International Exchange Market 222
Government Finance 230
Loans to Rulers 231
Risks 236
The Papacy 245
Competition and Innovation in the Sixteenth Century 255
part ii the urban economy
4 The Textile Industries 265
General Per for mance 267
The Wool Industry 267
The Silk Industry 282
Linen Drapers 296
Business Or ga ni za tion 298
The Firm 298
Operations beyond the Firm 308
Production 317
The Shop 317
The Work Force 322
Recapitulation: Wool, Silk, and the Economy 336
5 Artisans, Shop keep ers, Workers 341
The Work Force 342
Guilds 342
Artisans 349
Workers on the Margins of the Market 362
Contents vii
Per for mance of the Artisan Sector 377
Demand- Driven Growth 377
Pa ram e ters of the Local Market 396
6 Banking and Credit 408
Banking Institutions through the Fifteenth Century 408
Historiographical Problems 408
Local Banks 411
Pawnbrokers 419
Welfare Institutions 424
Banks and the Government 426
Lack of a Banking System 429
Perf orm ance of the Banking Sector 430
Practices 430
Economic Functions 448
Bankruptcies 453
Banking outside of Banks 458
Offsetting 458
The Private Credit Market 463
New Directions in the Sixteenth Century 468
A Public Savings- and- Loan Bank 468
A Central Clearance Bank? 476
Conclusion 479
7 Contexts 484
Government and the Economy 484
Economic Policy 484
Fiscal Policy 494
Business Interests and Government 511
The Region and the City 516
Urban Geography 517
Industrial Resources 521
Agriculture 529
Economic Integration 533
Private Wealth 546
Social Mobility 546
A Profi le of Wealth Distribution in 1427 560
Redistribution of Wealth in the Fifteenth
and Sixteenth Centuries 567
Conclusion 583
Economic Culture 583
Attitudes and Behavior 583
Notions about the Economy 590
viii Contents
Per for mance 594
The Economy in the Short Run 594
A Final Judgment 601
Appendix: Changing Values of the Florin 609
Index 615
tables, figures, and maps
tables
4.1. The wool industry, 1373–1619: Production as investment in the local
economy 278
4.2. The silk industry, 1436–1629: Production as investment in the local
economy 294
4.3. The wool and silk industries, 1373–1629: Production as investment in
the local economy 337
4.4. Percentage breakdown of production costs in the wool and silk
industries, fi fteenth and sixteenth centuries 339
5.1. Florentine guilds and their membership 345
7.1. Population of Tuscan towns ca. 1300 and in the fi rst half of the
sixteenth century 521
7.2. Distribution of landownership, 1427 and 1480 542
7.3. Wealth distribution by house hold in Florence in 1427 and in the
United States in 1995 562
7.4. Classes of wealth as reported in the 1427 catasto 563
7.5. Average wealth of the top occupational categories as reported in the
1427 catasto 566
7.6. Annual salaries of selected workers in the 1580s 577
A.1. Index of the real value of the current fl orin of account, 1300–1600 613
figures
3.1. The bill of exchange 212
5.1. The real value of an unskilled construction worker’s daily wage,
1350–1600 365