Public banks (2020-05-19) by ilCartastorie foundation ©ilCartastorie | Museo dell'Archivio Storico del Banco di Napoli
The history of the Banco di Napoli Historical Archive's origins is the history of the rise of the banking system, understood in a modern sense, in sixteenth centuryNaples. During the 16th century Naples had become a city of enormous strategic and commercial importance for the empire of the Habsburgs of Spain, to which the Kingdom of Naples, as a Viceroyalty, belonged. The development of trade and the evolution of society in the capital of the Viceroyalty created the conditions for new credit organization needs.
At that time, granting a loan with interest was considered an illegal practice.The morals of the Catholic Church, which considered making money through loans sinful, had contaminated state legislation, which opposed credit practices. The whole credit system, therefore, was trapped in a funnel of difficulties and restrictions. The only possibility, for the lower classes, of tapping into small amounts of credit without falling into the criminal world of usury was the service offered by Naples' Jewish community. Those who belonged to this community, free from ecclesiastical restrictions, made small loans with interest, taking items of medium value as guarantees. This material guarantee was vital for the survival of theJewish community, as a pragmatic Aragonese sanction actually established that any contract between a Jew and a Christian could be freely rescinded by the latter. In this unequal system, the only guarantee of stability for the Neapolitan Jews was represented, in fact, by the solvency of objects loaned as collateral.
Between 1538 and 1539 some patricians belonging to the Seggio di Capuana, one of the five noble 'circumscriptions' in which Neapolitan nobles were enrolled, gave life to a small institution of a supportive nature: the Monte di Pietà. The Monte di Pietà, like many of its counterparts in the rest of Italy, was intended to provide very modest loans, guaranteed by collateral, without any interest.
This simple mechanism for assistance created a widespread and solid consensus around the newly-created Monte's initiatives. Within a few decades the governors, this being the name of the institution's "managers", accumulated a large number of alms and bequests, in order to promote pious work and effectively combat the scourge of usury.
The affirmation and popularity of the Monte di Pietà's activities, as well as its increasing operational costs, initiated the process which within 30 years led the governors to place the Bank's name alongside that of the Monte. Along with the philanthropic function of the interest-free loan, with the consent of the viceroyal authority, went the pure banking function, with the option to carry out deposits and provide loans with interest, provided that the proceeds were invested in the already-launched charitable activities.
Thanks to its reputation, theBanco di Pietà not only managed to defeat competition from the banks of rich Tuscan and Genoese families, long active in Naples, but became a model imitated by other 'holy houses' and charitable operations in the city.Given the need to support their activities granting assistance and help to the population, large hospitals, orphanages and Neapolitan schools were given their own bank.
From 1529 to 1640 eight banks arose within the urban fabric.The Banco dei Poveri was founded in 1563 by some lawyers who, pitying the prison conditions of the small insolvent debtors, decided to dedicate their work to interest-free loans. In 1587 the Banco dell'Annunziata's activity was officially registered. This bank had performed activities similar to the deposit bank from the middle of the fifteenth century, albeit in a different form and without formal recognition by the crown.The Spanish community, historically assisted by the hospital of San Giacomo and Vittoria, was established in1597 by the Banco di San Giacomo intended, in the secular evolution of events in Naples and its kingdom, to become the bank privileged by the rulers and by the court. The Banco del Popolo was founded in1589 to support the work of the hospital for the "Incurabili", where all those suffering from diseases deemed impossible to cure found respite and relief.From 1592 the Banco di Sant'Eligio was active in the city market area, while in 1594 the Banco dello Spirito Santo, whose main assistance was aimed at supporting and educating orphans, obtained public recognition.Finally, in 1640, the tax collectors for flour gave life to the only one of the ancient banks not to have a distinctly philanthropic vocation.
The trust the population and the state had in these institutions was so widespread that their documentation was considered admissible evidence before the Viceroyalty's courts.It was precisely due to the particular value attributed to these banks' scrupulous documentation that they became known as "public". Until the second half of the eighteenth century the viceroy and royal authorities did not directly interfere with the management of the banks, which the governors guarded jealously.The eight public banks therefore created a network whose members, in close competition with each other, 'spoke' the same accounting language, and used the same documents and the same procedures.
This modern banking system, which was consolidated for the first time in the world in Naples, experienced fluctuating fortunes and prosperity up to 1809. At that time the surviving banks were conveyed and merged into one sole bank: the Banco delle Due Sicilie, to serve the now-independent kingdom of Naples.Following the unification of Italy, in 1861 the Banco delle due Sicilie definitively assumed the nameBanco di Napoli, which today still characterizes, in a summary manner, the great archive which collects this institution's historical documentation and that of its secular 'ancestors'.
