A moneylender in Venice: Costantino Bogdano ‘da Patrasso’, c. 1800-44

Pepelasis, Ioanna Sapfo and Tzavara, Angeliki (2011): A moneylender in Venice: Costantino Bogdano ‘da Patrasso’, c. 1800-44.

Abstract

Research on the practices of the moneylender, a permanent yet shadowy fixture of society, has focused on England in the early modern period. This paper, however, examines the business operations of Costantino Bogdano, a Greek moneylender active in Venice (c. 1800-44). At a time of transition in finance and cash shortage, Bogdano offered credit at a ‘just’ interest rate with competitive terms, combining profit with enlightened self-interest. Individuals from all walks of life repeatedly turned to him for money without ‘fear of losing their property’. He was patient, granted extensions for repayment and did not prosecute his bad debtors. The incidence of default was rare, testifying to a cautious choice of clientele. He required the usual guarantees of mortgages and jewels and also relied on implicit guarantees from family members linked to one another with bonds of trust. This strategy proved to be financially viable because he died a wealthy man.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Venice, nineteenth century, moneylender, business strategy, trust, real estate
• Subjects: N - Economic History > N2 - Financial Markets and Institutions > N23 - Europe: Pre-1913; N - Economic History > N8 - Micro-Business History > N83 - Europe: Pre-1913; N - Economic History > N9 - Regional and Urban History > N93 - Europe: Pre-1913

References

A’Hearn, B. (2003). Anthropometric evidence on living standards in Northern Italy, 1730-1860. The Journal of Economic History, 63(2), pp.351-81.

Allen, L. (2001). The Global Financial System, 1750-2000. London: Reaktion Books, pp. 146-7.

Angelou, A. and Chatziioannou, M. C. (eds.) (1997). Introduction to A. Syngros, Apomnimonevmata [Reminiscences]. Athens: Estia [in Greek].

Baroutsos, Ph. (1999). The Greek merchants of Venice: periods and trends. Dimosia Ilaria, Venice: Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini ePostbizantini di Venezia, pp. 133-53 [in Greek].

Bhaduri, A. (1983). The Economic Structure of Backward Agriculture. London: Academic Press, chap. 5.

Bernardello, A. (1996). La prima ferrovia fra Venezia e Milano. Storia della imperial-regia privilegiata strada ferrata Ferdinandea lombardoveneta (1835- 1852). Venice: Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti.

Bernardello, A. (2002a). Iniziative economiche, accumulazione e investimenti di capitale (1830-1866). In M. Isnenghi and S Woolf (eds.), Storia di Venezia. L’Ottocento e il Novecento, 14 vols, Rome: Istituto Italiano della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1991-2002.

Bernardello, A. (2002b). Venezia, 1830-1866. Iniziative economiche, accumulazione e investimenti di capitale, Il Risorgimento, 1, pp. 5-66.

Brusegan, M. (2005). La grande guida dei monumenti di Venezia, Rome: Newton & Compton.

Cafagna, L. (1973). The Industrial Revolution in Italy, 1830-1914. In C. M. Cipolla (ed.), The Fontana Economic History of Europe: The Emergence of Industrial Societies, vol. 1, part 1, London: Fontana, pp. 279-328.

Cameron, R. and Bovykin, V. I. (eds.) (1991). International Banking,1870-1914. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cippola, C. M. (1970). The economic decline of Italy. In C. M. Cipolla (ed.), The Economic Decline of Empires. London: Methuen, pp. 196-214, esp. pp. 202-14.

Clark, M. (1996). Modern Italy, 1871-1995. New Jersey: Longman.

Conca Messina, S. A. (2004). Cotone e imprese. Credito, commerci e tecnologie nell’ età dei mercanti industriali. Valle Olona, 1815-1860. Venice: Marsilio.

Corazzol, G. (1986). Livelli stipulati a Venezia nel 1591. Studio storico. Pisa: Giardini Editori e Stampatori.

Fratianni, M. and Spinelli, F. (1997). A Monetary History of Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ferguson, N. (2009). The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World, New York: Penguin.

Galli, A. M. (1991). La Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde dalla fondazione al 1940, vol. 1: L’ Ottocento. In A. Cova and A. M. Galli (eds.), La Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombardedalla fondazione al 1940, Milan-Rome-Bari: Cariplo-Laterza, 4 vols.

Gilmour, D. (2011). The Pursuit of Italy: A History of its Land, its Regions and their Peoples. London: Allen Lane. Ginsborg, P. (1979). Daniele Manin and the Venetian Revolution of 1848-49. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, chap. 1.

Goetzmann, W. N. and Rouwenhorst, K. G. (2005). The Origins of Value: The Financial Innovations that Created Modern Capital Markets, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Greenfield, K. R. (1939). Commerce and new enterprise at Venice, 1830-1848. The Journal of Modern History, 11, pp. 313-333.

Gritsopoulos, T. A. (1967). The Orlov Rebellion: The Revolution in the Peloponnese in 1770 and its Consequences [in Greek].

Katsiardi –Hering, O. (2004). From the Greek Communities abroad to the historiography of the phenomenon of migration, 15th-19th centuries’. Historiography of Modern and Contemporary Greece, 1833-2002, vol. 2, Athens: Centre of Neohellenic Research, Hellenic National Research Foundation, pp. 223-50.

Kindleberger, C. P. (1993). A Financial History of Western Europe Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kindleberger, C. P. (1996). World Economic Primacy: 1500 to1990. New York: Oxford University Press.

Lane, F. C. (1937). Venetian bankers, 1496-1533: a study in the early stages of deposit banking. The Journal of Political Economy, XLV, pp. 187-206.

Maltezou, C. (1999). The Venice of the Greeks. Athens: Militos [in Greek].

Maltezou, C. (2008). A Guide to the Archive. Athens-Venice: Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini e Postbizantini di Venezia, Library number 26 [in Greek].

McIntosh, M. K. (1988). Money lending on the periphery of London, 1300-1600. Albion, 20(4), pp. 557–71.

Mertzios, K. D. (1939). Thomas Flanginis, Studies of the Academy of Athens, vol. 8, Athens: Academy of Athens, pp. 1-165 [in Greek].

MuldrEw, C. (1998). The Economy of Obligation. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Papaioannou, A. P. (1986) The Greeks of Venice and the Venetian Revolution of 1848-9, Ioannina: University of Ioannina.

Pepelasis Minoglou, I. (2002). Ethnic minority groups in interna- tional banking: Greek diaspora bankers of Constantinople and Ottoman state finances, c. 1840-81. Financial History Review, 9(2), pp. 125-46.

Pezzolo, L. (2007). Venice and Doppler. In E. Hiebel and M. Musso (eds.), Christian Doppler, Life and Work: Principles and Application, Pöllauberg: Living Edition.

Piluso, G. (1999). L’arte dei banchieri. Moneta e credito a Milano da Napoleone all’Unità. Milan: Franco Angeli.

Polsi, A. (1996). Financial institutions in nineteenth-century Italy: the rise of a banking system. Financial History Review, 3(2), pp. 117-37.

Shipley, N. R. (1976). Thomas Sutton: Tudor-Stuart money lender. The Business History Review, 50(4), pp. 456-76. Tittler, R. (1994). Money-lending in the West Midlands: the activities of Joyce Jefferies, 1638–49. Historical Research, 67, pp. 249-63.

Triantafyllou, K. N. (1967). Konstantinos Bogdanos from Patras in Venice, national benefactor, Thesaurismata, 4, pp. 192-5 [in Greek].

Triantafyllou, K. N. (1980). Historical Lexicon of Patras [in Greek].

Vincent, Al. L. (2001). The Callergi case: crime and politics in western-Crete under Venetian rule, Thesaurismata, 31, pp. 211-92 [in Greek].

Xanthopoulou-Kyriakou, A. (1977). The Greek Community of Venice (1797-1866). Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki [in Greek].

Zorzi, A. (2003). Venezia austriaca. Gorizia: Libreria Editrice Goriziana.