Biography

Jacopo Sartori is an economic historian specializing in early modern banking history. He holds an MPhil and a PhD from the University of Cambridge (Gonville & Caius College), where he studied under the supervision of David Abulafia. His research focuses on the phenomenon of public banking and especially the re-considerations and contextualization of the diverse range of juridical and operational forms these institutions could take. At its core stand a new definition of public banking practices that challenges existing orthodoxies, an expanded census, and the study of the interplay between those who designed and deliberated upon projects. In the past year he worked for a consulting firm in Milan and published the chapter “New perspectives on the role of the Taula de Canvì of Barcelona in the reign of Charles V” in the edited volumed Mobilizing money for the public good (2024). He is also a Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society and writes fiction.

Project Summary

The advent of public banks in the fifteenth century was a crucial event in European History, for it marked a step towards a closer relationship between governments and financial systems. Yet, public banks manifested themselves in different and often puzzling forms. While modern scholarship has struggled to reconcile these, why did some public banking projects succeed while others failed? This project will cross-examine the pre-conditions, individual initiatives, relationships with power, technical features, and contingencies that dictated an outcome, with a focus on early modern Italian princely regimes. From the Catalan renaissance of public banking activities (1550s-1580s) to the end of the Thirty Years War (1548), the Duchies of Savoy, Milan, and Mantua, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Papal States had to overcome the limitations of reduced economic opportunities. They represented a geographic and economic periphery relative to the shift towards Atlantic commercial routes and featured inherent fragilities within their economic structures and various degrees of political instability and conflict. Yet, these characteristics provided a fertile environment where to envision the introduction of public banking practices as a solution to systemic issues (such as the growth of public debt) or market failures (such as the disappearance of private bankers). The aim of this project is ultimately to complete a comprehensive picture of Mediterranean public banking developments beyond the renowned cases of Catalonia, Venice, Genoa, Naples, and Sicily.