Credit and pawnbroking, families and nazioni: the Lombards between Piedmont and the Low Countries (ca.1380-1550)

摘要

Before the creation of the Monti di Pietà at the end of the Middle Ages, consumer credit on pawn was customarily supplied by private bankers. Although most of them were Jewish, in some European areas also Christian people were fulfilling this role. In territories as Savoy, the Rhine Valley and the Low Countries, they were usually known as Lombards. The Lombards active in the Low Countries between ca. 1280 and 1618 came principally from the cities of Asti and Chieri. However a very studied topic, there still was the need to reach a better understanding about the manners they used for integrating in a foreign society; moreover, their relationships with other foreign communities also still deserved a more thorough study. Hence, the aim of this work was to show the impact of the Lombards (especially those from Chieri active in the Low Countries in the second half of the XV century), and of their activities, on the socio-economic context of the hosting societies. Therefore, the dissertation has been divided into three major sections each touching some generalnbsp;fields (institutional, social, economic and financial).The first chapter revolves around the institutional aspects of the Lombards' presence in the Late-Medieval Low Countries: the focus has then been put on the development of a Nazione. It was possible to show the peculiarities of this institution when compared withnbsp;of other similar, but more powerful, organizations established in order to defend the rights of some other Italian merchants communities active in the same area.The core of the second chapter was the analysis ofnbsp;“networks” created by the Lombards at home and abroad. Regarding the first point, it emerges that the family still had a pivotalnbsp;in the running of the banchi abroad. Moreover, itnbsp;also possible to mark clear differences between the matrimonial strategies of the Lombardsnbsp;Asti and thosenbsp;Chieri. Abroad the Lombards had connections with people from Antwerp as well as withnbsp;other Italian merchants bankers (the Borromei family and some Genoeses).The third and fourth chapter deal with the financial activities of the Lombards. First of all, it hasnbsp;noticed that the assets'nbsp;of a Lombard was organized following a rational accounting system. Moreover, the analysis of some shareholder's agreement has shown thatnbsp;structure of the companies which managed the banchi resembled more those of the Tuscan enterprises rather than the very informal construction of the Genoese commenda.The daily routine of a casana has been considered as well: innbsp;sight it was possible to compare pawnbrokingnbsp;other credit formsnbsp;supplied by the Lombards. Some characteristics of the Lombards pawnbroking has been thoroughly scrutinized: as a consequence, it was possible to broaden the analysis noticingnbsp;in its fundamentals, pawnbroking remains unvaried up till today. Finally, the scrutiny of more than thousand loans on personal security (not on pawns) granted by the Lombards in Kortrijk enables to consider them as a supportnbsp;the local wool industryThe last chapternbsp;proposed a new interpretation regardingnbsp;already noticed decrease in the number of the banchi ran by Lombards in the Low Countries at the end of the XV century.nbsp;the traditional historiography considered as crucial some financial and economic changes occurred in thenbsp;Countries, in this dissertation the focus has been put rather on the transformations occurred in the same period in Chieri and innbsp;area: development of a local textile industry, the ending of a long urbanization process of the familiesnbsp;active abroad and the progressive bureaucratization of the Savoy's state.The archival research has been carried out both in Italynbsp;Belgium. In Italy most ofnbsp;archive groups are preserved in the archives of Turin,nbsp;and Chieri. These documents are quite varied including private documents relate to the Asinari family, the catasti of Chieri and some other notarial records. In Belgium, most of the archive group are of ducalnbsp;town production: moreover, some sentences of the Grote raad of Mecheln or the court of Brabant has been as well analyzed. The most interesting archive groups are these related to the confiscation of the casane ran by the Asinari in Brabant (1453) and the register “of the Lombards” preserved in Kortrijk.