THE MONTE DEI PASCHI 5 1 



associations, testifying to the priority of the Sienese institute in this im- 

 portant business, as it, preceded the German Landschaft by 144 years 

 and we have been the more anxious to do so as the scientific pubHcations 

 of economic and legal character deaUng with this subject all leave a gap 

 that ought to be filled. 



§ 3. Historical devel,opment of the monte de' paschi. 



And now, in continuation, we may remark that the fund of 200,000 

 scudi, within the limits of which the Monte might accept deposits and make 

 loans, was shown to be insufficient to repair all the evils by which local agri- 

 culture was afflicted ; so that in the brief course of six years there were 

 enough purchasers of luoghi di Monte to exhaust the whole fund, while the 

 avidity of the rich lenders was not altogether arrested. And the Sie- 

 nese public, desirous of preventing any possibifity of usury, presented 

 another prayer to the Grand Duke in which, after having shown in lively 

 colours the benefits the foundation of the Monte had conferred on the whole 

 State, requested that the fund might be increased by another 100,000 scudi 

 with the same guarantee as before. Ferdinand II, persuaded of the util- 

 ity of the new institute, consented, by Rescript of October i8th., 1630, to 

 the increase of the fund by 50,000 scudi. The larger sphere of the oper- 

 ations that, consequently, the Monte could conduct, led to a reduction of the 

 interest the institute paid its creditors and of that, consequently, that it 

 asked from its debtors. A second increase of the fund, by 25,000 scudi, 

 was accorded in 1747 ; in that year the city and State of Siena were in 

 great consternation on account of the poor harvests, and the new issue of 

 luoghi di Monte, rapidly taken up, succeeded in reheving the distress of 

 private individuals. A few years later, in 1766, on account of new economic 

 calamities, the fund of the Mont was increased by another 25,000 scudi, 

 thus reaching the amount of 300,000 scudi, which was not to be exceeded 

 until a new age and new requirements demanded a different organization 

 of the ancient institute. 



Pier Antonio Cerretaui, who was Proveditor of the Monte de' Paschi 

 from 1769 to 1772, indeed addressed an earnest and detailed memorial to 

 the grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo in 1777 to obtain a new increase of ioo,oou 

 scudi for the work of the Monte, but without any practical result. Part 

 of this memorial was first publislied by me on another occasion. In it, 

 in substance, the idea was advanced that, by increasing the fund of the 

 Monte de' Paschi, facifitations might be given to local proprietors, who 

 had not available funds, to purchase the land sold by the Luoghi Pit, and, 

 at the same time an opportunity given to the same Luoghi Pii, to reinvest 

 in the Monte, at a sufficient interest, the money obtained by the sales, thus 

 preventing the land in question being purchased by foreign capitalists and 

 the Luoghi Pii from seeking elsewhere a profitable investment of the capital 

 realised, and so arranging for a circulation of money within the State v.hich 



