Bank of Saint George

This article is largely a translation of the English article, March 4, 2008.

The Banco di San Giorgio ( Bank of St. George ) or Casa delle Compere di San Giorgio (House of purchases of Saint George ) was a financial institution of the Republic of Genoa. The bank was founded in 1407 and is one of the oldest in Europe or around the world. The headquarters of the Institute was the same Palazzo San Giorgio in Genoa. This was built in the 13th century on the orders of the politician and admiral Guglielmo Boccanegra, the uncle of the first Doge of Genoa, Simone Boccanegra.

Organization

On the creation and management of the Bank, some prominent families of the city of Genoa was mainly involved, among them the house of Grimaldi.

The bank was run by four consuls which particular both the finances and on the investment. However, since the relations between the oligarchs of the city-state and the bank conducting family clans were very tight, it is difficult to determine where the power of the Bank stopped and started the Republic. This is also reflected in the fact that the Bank phased took over political tasks.

Area of ​​operations

A number of colonies of Genoa was at least temporarily held directly or indirectly by the Banco di San Giorgio. 1453 handed the Republic of Genoa Bank officially rule over Corsica, the entire territory of Crimea with the trade center, Caffa, and other minor possessions. In the following decades, they demanded this but partially back.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Bank borrowed many European rulers significant sums of money and thereby got far-reaching influence. The Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella and Christopher Columbus were talking an account with her. The German Emperor Charles V. was the longest period of his reign deeply indebted to the Banco di San Giorgio, and Niccolò Machiavelli argued that the power of the Bank have made ​​Genoa a worthy memorial Republic as it was Venice.

In the 17th century, the Bank invested heavily in the maritime trade of getting better developed seas, competing at times with the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company.

In 1805 it was finally closed by Napoleon Bonaparte after his successful campaign in Italy.

In 1987, in Genoa a new bank under the name of Banco di San Giorgio, however, has probably made ​​merely the traditional name as its own, without having anything to do with the original institution.