THE MONTE DEI PASCHI 



47 



East, was called Monte or corporation of State creditors (i). It seems that 

 the Bank of St. George of Genoa, the glorious rival of Venice, so prominent 

 in the history of Italian financial institutions, was founded a few years 

 earlier. In the operations conducted by it, we find the scheda di redenzione, 

 corresponding with the modem sinking fund, the monete or lire di paghe, 

 in which our bonds originated, and those biglietti dt cartulano, marking 

 the transition from the bill of exchange to the bank note. 



While other Monti or Banks, on the model of those of Venice and Ge- 

 noa, were being founded in various cities of Italy with the object of prevent- 

 ing usury, in the fifteenth century a new charitable institution appeared in 

 our country, with the same aim, adversusjudaeorumfravas usur as, that of 

 the Monti di pietd. (Pawn Institutes). 



We know that the first of these, indeed, was founded in Perugia in 

 1462, through the influence of Frate Barnabas of Teriu, and ten years 

 later, in 1472, the Siena Monte di Pietd, owing its origin to the initiative of 

 the Commune, began its work ; but it has now been ascertained that the 

 original idea of these charitable institutions may be traced to a proposal 

 of the common council of Arcevia in the Marche, of June 29th., 1428 (2). 



The Siena Monte della Pietd did not at all reaUse the hopes conceived 

 at its start ; it lived with difiiculty for about half a century and ceased 

 to exist in 151 1 ; there was a vain attempt to revive it in 1521 and another, 

 more successful, in 1560, which led, as a result of continued insisting on 

 the part of the people, to its re-establishment in 1569. This second ilfoM^g, 

 besides discharging its original function, of lending to the poor on pawn, 

 also assumed the character of a credit institute, lending on special security 

 to the farmers and livestock improvers of the Maremma and the communities 

 of the State of Siena. 



Indeed, this latter business was so welcome that it very soon overshad- 

 owed the former, so that, in 1582, the Magis/ra^o (Board) of \.h& Monte pro- 

 posed to the Governor that it should be transformed into a credit institute ; 

 and the proposal, though resolutely rejected, was presented again and again 

 by various boards in tiurn. 



(i) The great Italian Economist, Francesco Ferrara, after referring to the expedition 

 against the East organized about the middle of the 12th. century by the Doge, Vitale Micheli, 

 and the loans made by the Venetian citizens to the State to defray the costs, in the hope of 

 great mercantile advantages to be obtained by a victory in the East, writes : " That corporation 

 of ci'ed.tors of the State was called Monte; a name givtn then and later to manj' other 

 similar institutions founded in various parts of Italy, because everywhere the Government 

 debt incre.^ed in proportion to the advance of trade. Many of these are known, and amongst 

 them all the first place is held bj' that of Genoa, also the earliest founded, a few years before 

 the Venetian, and then called Compera, which later on became the famous Bank of St. 

 George. " F. Ferrara, /n^foiMciton to vol. VI,, Second Series of the Biblioteca deU'Economista, 

 Turin, 1857. pp. CXI,II. 



(2) A. Anselmi, II Monte di Pietd di Arcevia, in the "Nuova Rivista Misena ", year IV, 

 no. I. Jesi, 1891. Cf. A. Bertolixi, Noia sulle ori-ini dci Monti di Pietd, in the "Giomale degli 

 Economisti ", December, 1891. 



