ABSTRACT
The chapter focuses on San Giorgio’s management of public debt and banking activities. It discusses shares (loca), interest (pagae), and fiscal activities and analyzes the tax on revenues, the so-called paga floreni. Tax revenues were usually regarded as the property of the Commune of Genoa, but when the Commune could not afford to cover territorial or politically related expenses, San Giorgio acted as a substitute, taking the paga floreni as security. San Giorgio also served as a financial platform, acting as an intermediary between local and large investors and external powers such as the duke of Milan and the pope. It raised funds from Genoese investors and lent them to foreign sovereigns. Among the investors, San Giorgio and the major merchants received the highest returns, while small Genoese merchants and artisans actively invested their capital in shares of public debt, thus supporting the whole financial system. The chapter shows how San Giorgio acted as a bank from 1408 to 1444 and how the accounting system used to track the market in interests on public-debt shares replaced the bank after its closure.
