This article presents the successful model of Genoese finance in the early modern period, particularly its primary role in the Spanish silver market in the 16th and 17th centuries. Thanks to a series of unpublished sources held at the State Archives of Bologna and a valuable contemporary manuscript preserved at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries. The main centres for the collection and distribution of Iberian bullion have been identified and analysed, highlighting the principal practices and customs employed in these commercial and financial hubs of the Mediterranean area. The Genoese bankers' professional skill is compared with the mercantile techniques of their main competitors: their Florentine counterparts. In particular, documents preserved in several private Genoese archives once again highlight the need to revisit the business papers of financial operators of the time to shed further light on the complex mechanisms of redistribution of Spanish silver, which has too often been mistakenly identified as the leading cause of the "price revolution", but above all, of the crisis and decline of the 17th century.
Financial history has paid considerable attention to the dependence of the Spanish Monarchy's bankers on the arrival of Spanish American silver in Seville, but less to the conditions under which it was exported to Italy. By emphasising the timing requirements of the financial business, this article analyses the logistical organisation that the king's most prominent Genoese bankers put in place with the aim of synchronising Mediterranean silver transfers by galleys with the periodic collection of Spanish American silver in Spain and the calendar of the Piacenza exchange fairs. An examination of the situation during the War of Monferrato (1613-1617) shows that, by securing the Habsburg Empire's endorsement, Genoese financiers obtained highly favourable access conditions for the vessels of their fellow citizens the Genoese galley contractors. By adapting to the financiers' schedule and guaranteeing high regularity and predictability, their naval services proved to be a key instrument for Genoese dominance in the Mediterranean distribution of silver, which, in turn, helps to better explain Genoese hegemony in the European credit markets of the early 17th century.
This article challenges any homogenizing interpretation of the Carboneria active in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1820, highlighting its plural and deeply heterogeneous configuration. Through an examination of its social and territorial ramifications, it shows how the transition from clandestinity to public visibility intensified latent tensions, organizational rivalries, and competing strategies of legitimization. The comparison between Naples and the provinces reveals marked polarizations and divergent political projects, including alternative federal schemes. The result is a shifting and conflict-ridden landscape in which internal fractures, public suspicion, and ongoing processes of identity redefinition shaped the languages, norms, and horizons of action of the carbonaro archipelago.
This article examines a contract signed in August 1594 by the Genoese banker Nicolao Doria for the provision of funds both within and beyond Spain. The study of this contract makes it possible to quantify the cost of remitting cash to Italy and to compare it with that of bills of exchange issued from Spain. Consistent with previous estimates for the seventeenth century, this case shows that the use of silver was approximately 7 per cent cheaper than bills of exchange. This finding helps to explain the strong interest of Genoese bankers in controlling the transfer of precious metals from the Spanish Monarchy through Madrid. Such operations could prove as profitable as lending money itself. For this reason, the Crown also sought, whenever possible, to arrange its own cash remittances.
This study analyzes the silver import operation carried out in Naples by the Genoese merchant Antonio Belmosto at the end of the sixteenth century. The operation was intended to support the increase in royal revenues, specifically, the recovery of previously alienated income by the viceroyalty, which was later to be resold at a lower interest rate. Although this issue was already examined by Professor Luigi De Rosa in research published in the late 1950s, the present study draws on previously overlooked sources and adopts a new approach, one that shifts the focus from strictly economic aspects to the social dynamics involved. This perspective makes it possible to highlight several previously unexplored elements: the forms of resistance to the circulation of silver in specific types of coinage; the effects of its abundance or scarcity on various social and political spheres, as well as on the currency exchange market; and, finally, the ability of economic actors to devise potential remedies to address the kingdom's economic difficulties.
