Crediting activity

As could be seen, the three Florentine merchant-banking companies, (that is, partnerships) in Buda operated with commercial and financial credits provided by numerous Florentine investors in various partnership formats.³⁹¹

The most important client of the Florentine investors and partnerships, who at the same time was quite often declared the worst as already briefly introduced in the case of the Buda companies, was usually King Sigismund himself. The records of the Catasto include quite colorful entries describing what a bad debtor he was considered by most of his creditors. Such mentions can also be seen in the following table. The table includes the available details on King Sigismund’s cumulative accounts with Florentine creditors, after having filtered out the sums appearing parallelly in the declarations of several partners.

Florentine partnerships/

investors

Florentine

fl Soldi Remarks

Simone di Pagolo Carnesecchi and Fronte

Co. 8 55 old debts

Simone di Pagolo

Carnesecchi and Fronte 6300

“for goods received until 1425, that he tore up the assignment (promissory note) apart and

390 Domenico di Antonio Allegri, ASF, Catasto 1430, 369. fol. 403v-404r.

391For the detailed analysis of the Melanesi, Panciatichi and Carnesecchi-Fronte companies in Buda see Arany,

“Firenzei–magyar kereskedelmi,” 284-297; Idem, “Magyarországi hitelezésre”, 165-177.

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Co. then reissued it and it goes on like this for long

time”³⁹² Simone di Pagolo

Carnesecchi and Fronte

Co. 1321 62

Simone di Piero Melanesi consigned it to the emperor (for the Carnesecchi)

Simone di Pagolo Carnesecchi and Fronte

Co. 800

“Filippo Capponi is our debtor for old debts of his”

Simone di Pagolo Carnesecchi and Fronte

Co. 12412 13

“For goods received until the day of Saint John, in the year 1428, for these we have a

promissory note issued by Lionardo and Giovanni di Nofri, and they will pay them as soon as they collect it, otherwise not”.³⁹³ Heir to Niccoló di Marco

Benvenuti³⁹⁴

1800

Antonio di Fronte di

Piero Fronte

3800

Heir to Iacopo

Ardinghelli³⁹⁵ 400

Simone and Tommaso

Melanesi 7000

“We issued a promissory note on the request of messer Filippo Scolari and paid in two

installments to a decent man for the affairs of the emperor. The emperor promised to settle it and issued a promissory note on the half. Later, however, he took it and I do not have any assignents from messer lo Spano [Scolari], but it is widely known that I issued the promissory note for him and it is how many people

know…”³⁹⁶

Giovanni di Bartolomeo

Panciatichi 9287

“… and they are in the hands of the emperor, which I could never collect from him, because, as you know, he is very bad debtor, on this you can get information from anyone having business in that country”³⁹⁷

1. Table Debts of King Sigismund of Luxemburg in the Florentine Catasto of 1427-1433

Florentine partnerships/ investors Florentine florins

Heir to Iacopo Ardinghelli 400

Antonio di Fronte di Piero Fronte 700

392 Simone di Pagolo degli Carnesecchi, ASF, Catasto 1427, 28. fol. 1010v. “Il detto [Serenissimo Principe Re Gismondo -- Arany] per roba avuta insino l’anno 1425 che ciene ruppe lasegnamento and poi l’ha ridato and cosi va per la lungha … .”

393 Simone di Pagolo Carnesecchi, ASF, Catasto 1427, 28. fol.1010v.

394 Heir to Niccoló di Marco Benvenuti, ASF, Catasto 1427, 53. fol.1096v.

395 Heir to Niccoló di Marco Benvenuti, ASF, Catasto 1427, 53. fol.1096v.

396 Filippo di Filippo Melanesi and nephews, ASF, Catasto 1427, 46. fol.652v. “promessi a petizione di messer Filippo Scolari e pagati in 2 partite a uno buouomo per fatti dello imperadore e lo imperadore ha promesso noi, [ha]

detto di volerci soddisfare e feciene assegnamento della meta e poi me l’ha levato, e da messer Lo Spano non ho lettera nessuna, ma é publicho come per lui feci la promessa e cosi appare per molte persone”.

397 Giovanni di Bartolomeo Panciatichi, ASF, Catasto 1427, 53. fol.1014r. “E sono nelle mani dello imperadore che mai non ho potuto da lui ritrarre perché, chome sapete, lui é cattivissimo paghatore,, come da chi ha a fare in paese vi potete chiaramente informare … ”

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2. Table Debts of Queen Barbara in the Florentine Catasto of 1427-1433

The rather hard remarks of the Florentine businessmen also reflected that in some cases the king’s open accounts (in other words his debts) were considered not only unsafe, but also rather long-term loans, another rather unfavorable factor for the creditors. Both Melanesi and Carnesecchi had entries including valuable descriptions on how King Sigismund handled the issue of promissory notes/cheques and other contracts. The records are clear hints at the intermediary role that the Florentine officers of the royal financial administration (particularly Filippo Scolari) played for King Sigismund as contacts with other Florentine investors both in the process of negotiating loans for the ruler, and in settling them with the chamber incomes entrusted to their competence. Antonio Fronte in Buda often provided large loans to King Sigismund as we have already seen. However, in Fronte’s case a record issued by the ruler in 1412 to Košice to pledge the rather humble yearly gift of the town (usually clothes worth approximately fl 20-30) to Fronte also shows the mediating role of Scolari, who was ”relator” of the charter.³⁹⁸ This seems to be the case for Lionardo and Giovanni di Nofri, who were apparently commissioned by the king to settle a debt from collected sums in their role as of counts of some royal chambers, probably the thirtieth, which office they jointly held in 1430-1433 with countrywide competence. These are examples of deputating the chambers’

income directly for financing the king’s debt.

The Florentines complained about Sigismund’s default of his debts, but at the same time, he was their most important partner in the Kingdom of Hungary. First of all, by providing credits, whether commercial or monetary, dealing in credits must have been generally lucrative despite major risks, as in Hungary interest rates were clearly higher than in Italy, usually around 10% in that period,³⁹⁹ Of course, it still remains an open question whether the ruler paid such a high rate on the loans he took. Later, in the mid-sixteenth century, the Hapsburg rulers generally paid a definitely lower interest rate of around 5%, but in general, the tendency for interest rates to decrease can be observed by the sixteenth century. In theory, the higher interest rates can be ascribed to the higher risks in crediting activity in the region, but particularly in the case of the loans provided to the king by entrepreneurs participating in the financial administration of Hungary, the cover of the loans seems to have been safely secured by the royal incomes they managed or at least they had a clear overview of the financial situation of the ruler. In some cases entrepreneurs also stood as guarantors for the king’s debts to his the creditors, whether these creditors were their Florentine fellow countrymen such as the Melanesi or others. King Sigismund’s delayed or neglected rendering of his loans was not limited to the Florentines, of course. In a much later record, a Vienna burgher, Peter “dictus”

398 Kumorovitz, BTOE, III/608. see side note “Relatio Phei[po]nis de Ozora, comitis Themesiensis legitur”

399 Léderer, “Középkori pénzüzletek”, 67.

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Chekel and his brother, Rudolf refer to a loan provided to the king running to fl 1.660. Sigismund with six of his guarantors, among them Nicholas Garai, the palatine, Nicholas Treutel de Newna, magister tavernicorum, Stibor of Stiborc, voivode of Transylvania, Filippo Scolari count of the salt chambers, Marcus of Nuremberg count of the royal chambers jointly issued a promissory note sealed by the guarantors. The descendant and heir Margaret, wife of Kelemen Mosoni (the granddaughter of one of the creditors) claimed in 1459 to have tried in vain to collect the outstanding credit from the heirs of the guarantors and expressed her intention to transfer the liability for her debts to George Reyher, castellanus of Pressburg. In the case of this promissory note issued by the king to the two burgers of Vienna and Pécs, the six guarantors for the royal debt, included the most important dignitaries of the kingdom, among them the leading officials of the financial administration and close advisors to the king. The record, thus, seems quite emblematic on the position, role and collaboration the members of these foreign leading financial elite shared in Hungary. ⁴⁰⁰

Altogether, Sigismund’s liabilities towards the Buda partnerships run at least to fl 34.699 (whereas another fl 1.100 figured in the queen’ account), a large, but not extreme amount compared to other records on King Sigismund’s debts, as we shall see later in the chapter.⁴⁰¹ The liabilities of the king comprised both money credits and goods shipped and consigned in advance.

The sums figuring in the catasto records refer only to unsettled transactions with the ruler and based on other written sources they make up only a small part of the real volume of business with him. In one record the Florentine Gianozzo di Vanni Cavalcanti also mentioned having a credit of fl 1.300 towards King Sigismund.⁴⁰² The loan, however, was not included in his catasto, which may be due to the fact that the account was eventually settled by 1427 or possibly his intention to hide his business activity in Hungary as much as possible from the Florentine authorities, although in this case the sum of the credit could have been detracted from his profit as a loss. In any case, the laconic catasto return of Cavalcanti seems to sustain the theory that he was endeavoring to completely keep back information on his profits in Hungary.⁴⁰³

The constant need for liquidity is fairly comprehensible in the case of Sigismund of Luxemburg, both emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and Hungarian king. Nevertheless, this somewhat one-sided picture provided on him by the Florentine Catasto’s open accounts as a client need to be balanced and complemented with other evidence. Some records also indicate there were more

400 See MNL OL DL 15360. May 6, 1459.

401 The sum total of the liabilities has been calculated, taking into consideration only those catasto record entries which can unequivocally be ascribed to King Sigismund on the basis of available notes.

402 Teke, “Firenzei kereskedőtársaságok”, 202.

403Amerigo, Gianozzo and Niccoló di Giovanni Cavalcanti, ASF, Catasto 1427, 27. fol. 103.r-106v.

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fortunate transactions, settled by the debts owed byKing Sigismund to Florentines as we shall see.

According to these records, the payments were usually fulfilled by pledging royal revenues, like that of the yearly gift of royal free towns. Salt could also be allocated to settle larger loans.⁴⁰⁴ In other cases, possessions, even towns, were pledged with the restraint of redemption.⁴⁰⁵ A 1413 record issued by Sigismund but preserved only in an 18^th century copy, seems an interesting example of such transactions. Three Florentine merchants mentioned in the document, “Balzarth filius condam Iohannis Fresingii, Nicolaus Baldovinÿ, Philippus de Palacio”, provided a loan of eight thousand florins to the king. In order to settle the account, the king ordered Andreas Kapi, vice count of salt chamber, to consign the Florentines salt in repayment.⁴⁰⁶ The transcription of the text may be uncertain, particularly with the deciphering of the Italian names, however, according to a catasto entry; a Filippo Del Palagio is present in Hungary prior to 1427, employed by Tommaso di Lapo Corsi.⁴⁰⁷ He also had a commission in the 1410s and 1420s as part of a Florentine partnership with prominent kinsmen of his, Andrea and Uberto di Giovanni del Palagio.⁴⁰⁸ The entry suggests that a partnership was founded again for a Hungarian business venture. Del Palagio also reappears in later sources regarding Hungarian business activity.⁴⁰⁹

A certain Niccoló di Iacopo Baldovini also figures in the Catasto. In the debtor lists of his brother’s partnership on wool trade, one can clearly identify entries related to Hungarian business. The partnership seems to have relied on additional partners for trade ventures in the kingdom, among them Pape di Salvestro Manini, the count of the salt chambers. Beyond that, Baldovini’s partnership seems to have been in directly connected to a Florentine Buda Burgher, Domenico di Giovanni

404 Finally, Queen Elisabeth, King Sigismund’s daughter also followed in her father’s footsteps by repaying a major sum of altogether around fl 12.000 lent by John, son of Emericus Perényi, magister tavernicorum, by pawning more castles, towns, customs, an iron mine and several possessions to Perényi with reference to his services to the late King as well and mentions her mother’s, Queen Barbara’s pawn of some possessions for fl 6.000. See MNL OL DL 38655.

Nov. 4, 1438.

405 Sigismund of Luxemburg was not the first to settle the credits taken by him by pledging towns and other real estate.

Already in the fourteenth century, his predecessor, the Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV, the Bavarian (1328-1347) and his father, Charles IV (1355-1378) followed the same financial path. On imperial finances and the pledge of towns etc.

see Eberhard Isenmann, “Reichsfinanzen und Reichssteuern im 15. Jahrhundert,” Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung, Band 7, no. 1 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1980): 1-17; The same policy may be observed in Hungary during King Sigismund’s reign, see Attila Ulrich, “Geldpolitik und Geldverkehr in Ungarn während der Herrschaft Sigismunds,” in Das Zeitalter König Sigismund’s in Ungarn und im Deutschen Reich, ed. Schmidt, Tilmann, Péter Gunst (Debrecen:

Debrecen University Press, 2000), 121-122. See also János Incze, My Kingdom in Pledge: King Sigismund of

Luxemburg’s Town Pledging Policy, Case Studies of Segesd and Bártfa, Master Thesis (CEU, Budapest College, 2012);

Emma Léderer, A középkori pénzüzletek története Magyarországon (1000-1458) [The history of medieval monetary transactions in Hungary 1000-1458], (Budapest: MTA, 1932).

406 MNL OL DL 71750. Sept. 30, 1413. mentioned also in István Draskóczy, “Kapy András: egy budai polgár pályája a XV. század elején,” [András Kapy: the career of a Buda burgher at the beginning of the fifteenth century] Levéltári Közlemények 54 (1983. no. 1-2): 149-189, here 161-162.

407 Tommaso di Lapo Corsi, ASF, Catasto 1427, 29. fol. 657v.

408 Andrea di Giovanni del Palagio was elected prior in 1411, whereas Uberto di Giovanni del Palagio held the office of consul of the woollens guild in 1430. The del Palagio family was considered a prominent smaller lineage in Florence throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. See Online Tratte. See also Molho, Marriage Alliance, 191.

409 Teke, “Firenzei kereskedőtársaságok”, 204.

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Arrighi who, similarly to the Melanesi etc, was a noble retainer (familiaris) to King Sigismund, implying he had close connections at the royal court.⁴¹⁰ Finally, according to the accounts, a Buda burgher named Iacopo di Bartolomeo also appears with a debt of 108 fl.⁴¹¹ This hints at the long term presence of the Baldovini brothers as investors in Hungary.

The third Florentine creditor partner in the Hungarian record can barely be made out, but taking into consideration that the name may have been misspelled then a Tosinghi may hide behind this certain Fresingii, or maybe a certain Baldassare or Baschiera di Giovanni Tosinghi, because the Tosinghi (or Della Tosa) family, particularly Giovanni Tosinghi, worked in Hungary and particularly in Buda from the late 1380s onwards and was interested in the marketing of Hungarian copper.

The above sums may seem at first sight rather large ones. A closer look at other royal loans/transactions in this period, however, the picture appears somewhat different. In comparison, a record on the fulfillment of the 1401 Augsburg contract between Florence and King Rupert, King of Germany (1400-1410), an opponent of King Sigismund in his ambitions concerning the Imperial Crown should be mentioned. Florence, according to the contract, paid 200,000 ducats in two installments to Rupert.⁴¹² The payment was effectuated by Giovanni di Averardo de Medici and partners. The receipt was consigned to Buonaccorso de Pitti (also present in Buda in the 1370s) and Paolo di ser Lando Fortnini etc. and was attested to by a certain Tommaso Corsini among others.⁴¹³ Looking closer at King Sigismund’s debts in general, one also encounters loans taken from Hungarians, whether members of the wealthy nobility or burghers with large fortunes, or members of the royal administration. Also, in most of these cases, the amount of the loan runs to thousands of florins and represented a lucrative crediting activity apparently, judging from the keen enthusiasm of the creditors as confirmed by the repeated transactions.⁴¹⁴

410 Kintzinger, Westbindungen, 420.

411 Niccoló and Giovanni di Iacopo di messer Niccoló Baldovini and their mother, ASF, Catasto 1427, 62. fol. 336r-342v, here fol. 342v. Iacopo di Bartolomeo da Buda had to pay fl 108 by October 1425.

412 [Regg. Pfalzgrafen 2] n. 1628, in Regesta Imperii Online, URI:http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/1401-09-13_1_0_10_0_0_1628_1628 (Last downloaded: June 05, 2013).

413 [Regg. Pfalzgrafen 2] n. 6718, in Regesta Imperii Online, URI: http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/1402-01-23_1_0_10_0_0_6333_6718 (Last downloaded March.06.2013). Members of the Corsini kin group were present in Hungary both as legates and as apprentices employed by the Buda partnerships.

414 A few examples of the many loans taken by King Sigismund from various creditors other than Florentines based on the surviving records: MNL OL DL 100278. April 27, 1397. George of Kővágóörs, castellanus of Esztergom gave King Sigismund a credit of fl 3.000 and received in compensation some possessions in pawn, MNL OL DL 12717. June 17, 1435. given by a certain Ulrik, son of Wolfart of Vereskő, member of the entourage in Italy during the Romfahrt, also provided a loan of fl 3.060 to the king. Ladislaus Neczpál, castellanus of Trencsén, also provided credit of fl 400 to Sigismund, see MNL OL DL 63255. June 4, 1436. Also Andreas Kapy, familiaris of Pipo of Ozora, member of the royal salt administration provided loans (fl 3.000 and salt worth fl 8.000 on another occasion etc.) to the king, see Draskóczy, “Kapy András”, 170.

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Some records of the Regesta Imperii shed light on the credit provided by the Buda merchant Antonio Fronte and his company to King Sigismund to cover the costs of the coronation of King of the Romans prior to 1413. It was a rather large sum (12500 Bohemian grossi), which – based on a former agreement – was supposed to be offered by the Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order.⁴¹⁵ As Sigismund claimed in his letter, the conditions of the credit transaction with Fronte were unfavorable (most probably too expensive) and the king suffered a rather substantial financial loss as a result.⁴¹⁶ The next year, however, another Florentine in Buda, Onofrio di Bardo confirmed the receipt of 25.600 Bohemian grossi in his quality as count of the chamber (of Buda) to King Sigismund. It seems that the same credit lies behind the two transactions, but apparently the Fronte were not able to collect the money from the Grandmaster and I suppose that they settled their account with Sigismund in another way, as Onofrio clearly confirms repayment of the sum as royal officer of the chamber.⁴¹⁷ Altogether, King Sigismund, in spite of the difficulties of settling accounts with him, remained an important client for Florentine merchant-bankers, as shown in the previous paragraphs.

The Florentine sources, however, are much more telling on the crediting activity of Florentines among themselves. In fact, some entries in the catasto lists of the Buda partnerships reporting of their business activity in Hungary provide information on local banking activity which varied from single loans up to exchange of money, mainly with other Florentines and other foreigners present in the town, and to a lesser extent with Hungarian clients. The only surviving record on Florentines’

local crediting activity in Hungary, beside the Buda partnerships’ lists, is the debtor lists of the Manini, compiled in 1463.⁴¹⁸ In the correspondence of Florentine chamber officers among themselves in Hungary one can also find references to debtors, even mentions on accountant books.⁴¹⁹ Also the last will of Nicholas Perényi, master of the horse (agasonum regalium magister) is of interest, because he mentioned a credit transaction made with Filippo di Simone Capponi based pledge. Perényi, in fact, pledged a jewel for fl 100 by Capponi and commissioned his wife to

415 On the coronation see Péter E. Kovács, “Zsigmond király milánói koronázása,” [The coronation of King Sigismund in Milan] in Tiszteletkör. Történeti tanulmányok Draskóczy István egyetemi tanár 60. születésnapjára [Lap of Honor.

Essays in honor of Professor István Draskóczy for his sixtieth birthday], ed. Mikó Gábor, Péterfi Bence, Vadas András (Budapest, 2012), 67–83.

416 RI XI,1 n. 491, in Regesta Imperii Online, URI: http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/1413-05-17_7_0_11_1_0_502_491, RI XI,1 n. 660, in Regesta Imperii Online, URI: http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/1413-08-28_8_0_11_1_0_696_660, RI XI,1 n. 673, in Regesta Imperii Online, URI: http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/1413-09-01_1_0_11_1_0_714_673 (Last downloaded: May 31, 2013). Teke, “Firenzei kereskedőtársaságok”, 195.

417Deutschordenszentralarchiv, Vienna. Urkunden, 2932. Thorn, April 5, 1413.Facs.monasterium.net: DOZA/Urkunden/2932/charter

http://www.mom-ca.uni-koeln.de/mom/AT-DOZA/Urkunden/2932/charter?q=Florenz (Downloaded: May 30, 2013)

418 Draskóczy, “Adósjegyzék”, 93-113.

419Letter by Agnolo de Bardi to Papi Manini: MNL OL DL 44496. Nov. 29, 1447. “… io non so se mai mandatto fuori a rischuotere e debitori che avete fatto chosti”; MNL OL DL 44495. Dec. 26, 1447. “e pero voi avette chosta il libro de debitori”

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redeem the jewel described at detail probably for easier identification.⁴²⁰ Altogether, the evidence is scarce to be analysed, it only provides a glimpse into the crediting activity of Florentines with the local elite.

The importance of Venice, as the European financial and banking center closest to the Kingdom of Hungary is beyond doubt. Most of the banking transactions were concluded in Venice through Venetian banking houses and the Venetian branches of Florentine international banking houses.⁴²¹ The banking activities developed in parallel with international trade while the rapidly increasing network of foreign branches of Florentine banking houses supported circulation of money, the handling of current accounts, and also money transfers in general for small-scale entrepreneurs who could thus extensively profit from these possibilities. Seven partners working in Venice could be identified in the lists of the Florentine Catasto, a rather modest number and surely not representative. In any case, most were Florentines although a few Venetian partners also appear in the records. A moneychanger in Senj figures in the tax returns. He cooperated in bank transfers and check operations with other Florentines in transit through the Dalmatian port city.⁴²²

Looking closer at the Florentine investors’ tax returns on their Hungarian business ventures, classic financial techniques to increase the working capital of the partnerships operating in the kingdom can be identified: the introduced above “sopraccorpo” or “danari fuori del corpo”, which could be invested on specific terms by both the partners (in this case the preliminary profits were often reinvested into the business) and introduction of outsiders into the partnership and payment of a fixed interest rate. In this early period in Italy the interest rate fluctuated between 5-7%, a relatively low rate compared to rates of around 10%, usual in Hungary in the same period.⁴²³ This form of investment was more liquid and diminished business risks related to losses within the partnership.

By the second half of the fifteenth century, the investors in “sopraccorpo” of banking partnerships were mainly foreigners, in contrast to Hungary in the early fifteenth century, since according to the transactional lists of the Catasto, it was Florentines exclusively who made use of this investment form.⁴²⁴ The shareholders of the partnership, however, rarely figure among them. As in the case of the Melanesi, no other geographical areas figure in the lists as having been targeted for investment, I assume that they did not dispose of further assets to be invested in their partnership. In the case of

420 MNL OL DL 39287. May 27, 1428.

421 On the role of Venice and the Venetian branches of Florentine banking houses see Raymond de Roover, The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank: 1397-1494 (Beard Books. Washington. 1999), 240-254; Goldthwaite, The Economy, 193; Reinhold C. Mueller – Frederic C. Lane, The Venetian money market: banks, panics and the public debt 1200-1500 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).

422 Lodovico di Piero di Lodovico’s tax return, ASF, Catasto 1427, 54. fol.122r.

423 On the “corpo” and “sopraccorpo” and in general on the forms of commercial credits see Melis, Documenti, 77-79;

on the example of the Medici bank de Roover, The Rise ,100-108; Goldthwaite, The Economy, 205-210.

424 Goldthwaite, The Economy, 438. Melis, Documenti, 77.

In document Florentine Families in Hungary in the First Half of the Fifteenth Century (Pldal 82-90)