{"id":{"repo_id":"cambridge","oai_identifier":"oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/355692"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cambridge/oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/355692","repository":{"repo_id":"cambridge","name":"Cambridge University","base_url":"https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"The diffusion of public banking initiatives in Europe, 1500–1650","abstract":"In this thesis I present a human history of the diffusion of the phenomenon of public banking in late-medieval and early modern Europe (1350–1650), with a focus on the sixteenth and early-seventeenth century. The adjective ‘human’ symbolizes a shift away from a canon composed solely of a selection of banks considered public de jure, despite the absence of a clear-cut definition, in favour of a comprehensive re-consideration of banks, proposals and unsuccessful projects from almost every corner of early modern Europe, and of the interplay between those who proposed, designed, requested, transferred technical knowledge for, evaluated and, ultimately, decided whether to implement them. Based on the discovery of three previously unknown public banks, the consideration of thirty-three projects and the re-appraisal of ten banks regarded by de facto public banks in literature, I challenge the existing orthodoxy which portrays the diffusion of the phenomenon of public banking as a stepping-stone path of very loosely related experimentations mostly limited to economically vibrant cities and established through impersonal decontextualised initiatives. Instead, I show how the diffusion of the phenomenon of public banking was substantially unitary and grounded on the perception of public banking as a ‘ready solution’, the existence of precise mechanisms for the acquisition of technical knowledge and a shift from municipal collective initiatives to individual initiatives as an engine of diffusion. I start from the analysis of the inherent ambiguity of the definition (Introduction) to then proceed to frame the appearance of a via catalana and a via italiana to public banking practices in the fifteenth century (Ch. 1), shape a case-study in municipal resilience through the portrayal of the activities of the understudied Taula of Barcelona under the reign of Charles V (Ch. 2), pinpoint the institutionalised pattern of transfer of technical knowledge behind the capillary diffusion of the taula-model in the Spanish Empire under Philip II (Ch. 3), examine the intertwined paths that led to the establishment of public banks in Europe between the 1580s–1650s starting from a Spanish perspective (Ch. 4) and, ultimately, identify the main trends and characters of a ‘transition period’ wedged between early fifteenth-century attempts and the advent of banks of issue and financiers in the second half of the seventeenth century (Ch. 5). Ultimately, these reconsiderations provide a new evolutionary metaphor for pre-1650s public banks, namely, as neither proto-central banks, nor true central banks, nor a primordial soup of undefined inorganic building blocks and unformed conglomerates, but as neanderthalensis. In essence, they ought to be considered a species in their own right.","abstract_html":"In this thesis I present a human history of the diffusion of the phenomenon of public banking in late-medieval and early modern Europe (1350–1650), with a focus on the sixteenth and early-seventeenth century. The adjective ‘human’ symbolizes a shift away from a canon composed solely of a selection of banks considered public de jure, despite the absence of a clear-cut definition, in favour of a comprehensive re-consideration of banks, proposals and unsuccessful projects from almost every corner of early modern Europe, and of the interplay between those who proposed, designed, requested, transferred technical knowledge for, evaluated and, ultimately, decided whether to implement them. Based on the discovery of three previously unknown public banks, the consideration of thirty-three projects and the re-appraisal of ten banks regarded by de facto public banks in literature, I challenge the existing orthodoxy which portrays the diffusion of the phenomenon of public banking as a stepping-stone path of very loosely related experimentations mostly limited to economically vibrant cities and established through impersonal decontextualised initiatives. Instead, I show how the diffusion of the phenomenon of public banking was substantially unitary and grounded on the perception of public banking as a ‘ready solution’, the existence of precise mechanisms for the acquisition of technical knowledge and a shift from municipal collective initiatives to individual initiatives as an engine of diffusion. I start from the analysis of the inherent ambiguity of the definition (Introduction) to then proceed to frame the appearance of a via catalana and a via italiana to public banking practices in the fifteenth century (Ch. 1), shape a case-study in municipal resilience through the portrayal of the activities of the understudied Taula of Barcelona under the reign of Charles V (Ch. 2), pinpoint the institutionalised pattern of transfer of technical knowledge behind the capillary diffusion of the taula-model in the Spanish Empire under Philip II (Ch. 3), examine the intertwined paths that led to the establishment of public banks in Europe between the 1580s–1650s starting from a Spanish perspective (Ch. 4) and, ultimately, identify the main trends and characters of a ‘transition period’ wedged between early fifteenth-century attempts and the advent of banks of issue and financiers in the second half of the seventeenth century (Ch. 5). Ultimately, these reconsiderations provide a new evolutionary metaphor for pre-1650s public banks, namely, as neither proto-central banks, nor true central banks, nor a primordial soup of undefined inorganic building blocks and unformed conglomerates, but as neanderthalensis. In essence, they ought to be considered a species in their own right.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Sartori, Jacopo"],"institution":"University of Cambridge","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Abulafia, David"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-04-06","date_published":"2021-04-06","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:00Z","subjects":["Banking History","History","Mediterranean History","Economic History","Public banks"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/ac6427ab-9f80-4163-9f96-065e99ed1093/download","https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.100582","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.doi"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Abulafia, David"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.sponsor","label":"Sponsor","values":["Gonville & Caius College, Economic History Society (EHS)."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Sartori, Jacopo"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2021-04-06"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Cambridge"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby.uri","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby URI","values":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/355692"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Banking History","History","Mediterranean History","Economic History","Public banks"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/ac6427ab-9f80-4163-9f96-065e99ed1093/download","https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.100582"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/4e25ccef-8514-40af-bc0a-2729eb34452b/download"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["In this thesis I present a human history of the diffusion of the phenomenon of public banking in late-medieval and early modern Europe (1350–1650), with a focus on the sixteenth and early-seventeenth century. The adjective ‘human’ symbolizes a shift away from a canon composed solely of a selection of banks considered public de jure, despite the absence of a clear-cut definition, in favour of a comprehensive re-consideration of banks, proposals and unsuccessful projects from almost every corner of early modern Europe, and of the interplay between those who proposed, designed, requested, transferred technical knowledge for, evaluated and, ultimately, decided whether to implement them. Based on the discovery of three previously unknown public banks, the consideration of thirty-three projects and the re-appraisal of ten banks regarded by de facto public banks in literature, I challenge the existing orthodoxy which portrays the diffusion of the phenomenon of public banking as a stepping-stone path of very loosely related experimentations mostly limited to economically vibrant cities and established through impersonal decontextualised initiatives. Instead, I show how the diffusion of the phenomenon of public banking was substantially unitary and grounded on the perception of public banking as a ‘ready solution’, the existence of precise mechanisms for the acquisition of technical knowledge and a shift from municipal collective initiatives to individual initiatives as an engine of diffusion. I start from the analysis of the inherent ambiguity of the definition (Introduction) to then proceed to frame the appearance of a via catalana and a via italiana to public banking practices in the fifteenth century (Ch. 1), shape a case-study in municipal resilience through the portrayal of the activities of the understudied Taula of Barcelona under the reign of Charles V (Ch. 2), pinpoint the institutionalised pattern of transfer of technical knowledge behind the capillary diffusion of the taula-model in the Spanish Empire under Philip II (Ch. 3), examine the intertwined paths that led to the establishment of public banks in Europe between the 1580s–1650s starting from a Spanish perspective (Ch. 4) and, ultimately, identify the main trends and characters of a ‘transition period’ wedged between early fifteenth-century attempts and the advent of banks of issue and financiers in the second half of the seventeenth century (Ch. 5). Ultimately, these reconsiderations provide a new evolutionary metaphor for pre-1650s public banks, namely, as neither proto-central banks, nor true central banks, nor a primordial soup of undefined inorganic building blocks and unformed conglomerates, but as neanderthalensis. In essence, they ought to be considered a species in their own right."]},{"key":"dc:format.checksum.md5","label":"Dc Format Checksum Md5","values":["87eda9de84448d1f82354d60eee3eb5f","69b99807672a89d076e7443059e1fa45"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The diffusion of public banking initiatives in Europe, 1500–1650"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Abulafia, David"],"dc:contributor.sponsor":["Gonville & Caius College, Economic History Society (EHS)."],"dc:creator":["Sartori, Jacopo"],"dc:date.issued":["2021-04-06"],"dc:description.abstract":["In this thesis I present a human history of the diffusion of the phenomenon of public banking in late-medieval and early modern Europe (1350–1650), with a focus on the sixteenth and early-seventeenth century. The adjective ‘human’ symbolizes a shift away from a canon composed solely of a selection of banks considered public de jure, despite the absence of a clear-cut definition, in favour of a comprehensive re-consideration of banks, proposals and unsuccessful projects from almost every corner of early modern Europe, and of the interplay between those who proposed, designed, requested, transferred technical knowledge for, evaluated and, ultimately, decided whether to implement them. Based on the discovery of three previously unknown public banks, the consideration of thirty-three projects and the re-appraisal of ten banks regarded by de facto public banks in literature, I challenge the existing orthodoxy which portrays the diffusion of the phenomenon of public banking as a stepping-stone path of very loosely related experimentations mostly limited to economically vibrant cities and established through impersonal decontextualised initiatives. Instead, I show how the diffusion of the phenomenon of public banking was substantially unitary and grounded on the perception of public banking as a ‘ready solution’, the existence of precise mechanisms for the acquisition of technical knowledge and a shift from municipal collective initiatives to individual initiatives as an engine of diffusion. I start from the analysis of the inherent ambiguity of the definition (Introduction) to then proceed to frame the appearance of a via catalana and a via italiana to public banking practices in the fifteenth century (Ch. 1), shape a case-study in municipal resilience through the portrayal of the activities of the understudied Taula of Barcelona under the reign of Charles V (Ch. 2), pinpoint the institutionalised pattern of transfer of technical knowledge behind the capillary diffusion of the taula-model in the Spanish Empire under Philip II (Ch. 3), examine the intertwined paths that led to the establishment of public banks in Europe between the 1580s–1650s starting from a Spanish perspective (Ch. 4) and, ultimately, identify the main trends and characters of a ‘transition period’ wedged between early fifteenth-century attempts and the advent of banks of issue and financiers in the second half of the seventeenth century (Ch. 5). Ultimately, these reconsiderations provide a new evolutionary metaphor for pre-1650s public banks, namely, as neither proto-central banks, nor true central banks, nor a primordial soup of undefined inorganic building blocks and unformed conglomerates, but as neanderthalensis. In essence, they ought to be considered a species in their own right."],"dc:format.checksum.md5":["87eda9de84448d1f82354d60eee3eb5f","69b99807672a89d076e7443059e1fa45"],"dc:identifier.doi":["https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.100582"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/4e25ccef-8514-40af-bc0a-2729eb34452b/download"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:publisher.institution":["University of Cambridge"],"dc:relation.isreferencedby.uri":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/355692"],"dc:rights":["https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/ac6427ab-9f80-4163-9f96-065e99ed1093/download","https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/"],"dc:subject":["Banking History","History","Mediterranean History","Economic History","Public banks"],"dc:title":["The diffusion of public banking initiatives in Europe, 1500–1650"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"dc:type.qualificationlevel":["Doctoral"],"dc:type.qualificationname":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:00Z"}