Economic History Seminar

Du 23/10/2019 de 12:30 à 14:00

Salle R1.09, Campus Jourdan 48 Bd Jourdan 75014 Paris

POMPERMAIER Matteo (GRHis)

The ‘Handkerchief Economy’: Inns and Bastioni as Microcredit Institutions in Early Modern Venice (18th century).

In early modern Venice, wine and money were intrinsically linked through the activity of the innkeepers and the bastioneri (the managers of the bastioni, warehouses where wine was sold), who offered their customers an innovative pawnbroking service. They assumed the double roles of suppliers of basic goods and creditors, thereby becoming central economic figures in Venice’s urban context – especially for the members of the poorest classes. One of the most innovative elements of this credit circuit lies in the way that interest on loans was collected: creditors benefited from the fact that one-third of the total value of the transaction was paid in wine. The low average value of the loans confirms that this service was mainly aimed at the lower classes of society, the main actors in what has been defined as ‘the handkerchief economy’. Those who benefited the most from this kind of credit arrangement were essentially poor – but not ‘too poor’ – people, who had only modest reserves of money, and were thus more vulnerable due to the paucity and irregularity of their income. This paper focuses on the pawnbroking activity of Venetian innkeepers and bastioneri, with a twofold main objective: (a) to describe his origins and mode of operation and (b) to highlight his social and economic impact on 18th century Venice.