Deposit and giro bank
Banco de depósito y giro
- Date
- s. XIII · confidence low
- Place
- Venice (Rialto), Genoa and Florence, Italy
- Credited to
- Venetian and Florentine money-changers; the Taula de Canvi of Barcelona (1401)
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Institutions that accepted deposits, transferred funds between accounts by simple book entry, and lent to merchants and princes. The origin of the European banking system.
The supposed 'Bank of Venice' of 1157 is a legend derived from the Venetian forced loan (Camera degli Imprestiti); deposit and giro banks ('banchi di scripta') are documented at the Rialto from the first half of the 13th century. The Banco della Piazza di Rialto dates from 1587.
What it led to
- the financing of monarchies and wars (the bankruptcy of the Bardi and Peruzzi in 1345)
- public banking (the Taula de Barcelona, 1401; the Casa di San Giorgio, 1407)
- Medici patronage of the Renaissance
Built on
- Bill of exchangec. 1250
- Double-entry bookkeeping1340
- Bill of exchange
- Double-entry bookkeeping
- fair money-changers (bancherii)
Made possible
- central bank
- cheque