ITALY. 



THE PART PLAYED BY THE MONTE DEI PASCHl 

 IN HISTORY AND IN THE ORGANISATION OF CREDIT. 



By Prof. Dr. Filippo ViRGiui, 



Professor at the Royal University of Siena, formerly Member 

 of the Board of Management of the Monte dti PascM. 



§ I. The origin of the " monte dei paschi " 



AND THE COMMENCEMENT OF ITS RURAL CREDIT BUSINESS IN 1625. 



The first mention of a Monte at Siena occurs in 1369 ; at that time the 

 name was given both to one of the parties by which the city was troubled 

 and to the pubHc banks, and the first bank was, instituted by a 

 decision of the Council in 1369 and took the name of Monte Comune. 



The republic provided itself with money either by arbitrary tax- 

 ation or by loans : the amount of the latter, principal and interest, was 

 entered in the Liber dehiti ; and it was precisely by the decision of 1369 

 that, the debts of the commune having considerably increased, they were 

 distributed in three books corresponding with the three chief districts of 

 the city, each of them representing a group of creditors. It was also 

 decided that these debts should be gradually paid o3 out of the Govern- 

 ment revenue derived from the duty on salt and the paschi or pastures 

 of the Maremma. To this revenue the name of monte was also given. In 

 consequence the Monte dci Dehiti, that of the salt duty, and that of the 

 revenue from the pastures were united in a single Monte del Comune Sale 

 e Paschi. 



Needless to say this institution, in spite of having the same name, 

 has nothing to do with the Monte dei Paschi which came into existence in 

 the seventeenth century, and forms the subject of our enquiries and 

 remarks ; we only wished to mention the former as evidence that in a 

 remote epoch, the name of Monte was given to a public bank in Siena. 



We find the word used in the same sense also in other places, and even 

 at an earlier date. The first bank founded in Venice about the middle of 

 the twelfth century, which lent money to the Republic for its wars in the 



