Venetian Money Market

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.

• List of Illustrations List of Tables Preface List of AbbreviationsPart 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 VenetiansChapter 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 WorkConclusionAppendixesBibliographyIndex

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