ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on political and legal features of San Giorgio such as the rules for filling its offices and the social composition of officeholders. It offers a quantitative analysis of the participation of Genoese families in San Giorgio and in the Commune of Genoa, clarifying the differences between the two. It also considers San Giorgio’s role in Genoese political instability. The value of San Giorgio shares rose when Genoa was under foreign domination—when the Commune was ruled by the duke of Milan or the king of France—and fell when internal Genoese factions took power as doges. The chapter analyzes the correlation between share speculation and political stability/instability.
