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Commercial Association in Thirteenth-Century Lucca*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Thomas W. Blomquist
Thomas W. Blomquist
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History, Northern Illinois University
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Abstract

Professor Blomquist describes and analyzes various forms of business association in an important northern Italian city during the period of economic growth in the thirteenth century. These included two basic forms of partnerships, as well as an early version of limited liability association.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , Summer 1971 , pp. 157 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1971

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References

1 For general economic conditions, the reader is referred to the Cambridge Economic History, Vols. I–III. On the theoretical level, see the recent article of North, D. C. and Thomas, R. P., “An Economic Theory of the Growth of the Western World,” Economic History Review, 2nd ser. XXIII (1970), 1–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 The literature on Lucchese economic and social history in the Middle Ages is sparse. See especially the unfortunately unpublished study by Edler, Florence, “The Silk Trade of Lucca during the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries,” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, Chicago, 1930)Google Scholar. Also Blomquist, T., “Trade and Commerce in Thirteenth-Century Lucca,” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1966)Google Scholar. Cf. the earlier works of Bini, T., I Lucchesi a Venezia: alcuni studi sopra i secoli XIII e XIV, 2 vols. (Lucca, 1853–1856)Google Scholar, and Bongi, S., “Della Mercatura dei lucchesi nei secoli XIII e XIV,” Atti della Reale Accademia Lucchese di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, XVIII (1868), 1–55Google Scholar. For Lucca in the Middle Ages, see Tommasi, G., Sommario della storia di Lucca published as Archivio Storico Italiano, X (1876)Google Scholar and the more general treatment of Mancini, A., Storia di Lucca, Firenze, 1950.Google Scholar

3 Sapori, A., Le Marchand Italien (Paris, 1952), 15–21Google Scholar provides an annotated bibliography on the subject of medieval partnership and business organization. Goldschmidt, L., Storia Universale del Diritto Commerciale (Torino, 1913)Google Scholar, remains a classic in the field, while an excellent summary may be found in de Roover, R., “The Organization of Trade,” Cambridge Economic History (Cambridge, 1963), III, 70–86.Google Scholar

4 On the notarial archives of Lucca, see Lopez, R. S., “The Unexplored Wealth of the Notarial Archives of Pisa and Lucca,” Mélanges d'histoire du moyen-âge dédiés à la mémoire de Louis Halphen (Paris, 1951), 417–433Google Scholar and Lazzareschi, E., “L'Achivio dei Notari della Repubblica lucchese”, Gli archivi italiani, II (1915), 175–210Google Scholar.

5 For the Ricciardi, see Re, E., “La compagnia dei Ricciardi in Inghilterra e il suo fallimento alla fine del secolo XIII,” Archivio della Reale Società Romana di storia patria, XXXVII (1914), 87–138Google Scholar. Re's work is based essentially upon Vatican sources and consequently presents a rather one sided point of view.

6 The partnerships in which the Gentili and Terizendi families seemingly predominate are not identified in the sources by a partnership style. However, the clear preponderance of members of these families within the partnerships seemed to justify appropriating their names for ease in identification. The above named organizations all functioned as papal depositories: see Jordan, E., De Mercatoribus camerae apostolicae seculo XIII (Rennes, 1909)Google Scholar; Lunt, W. E., Financial Relations of the Papacy with England to 1327 (Cambridge, Mass., 1939), 77–114Google Scholar; and Arias, G., Studi e documenti di storia del diritto (Florence, 1902), 77–114Google Scholar. For the names of the partners of the above organizations as well as other partnerships engaged in international finance as reconstructed from the Lucchese sources, see the accompanying Appendix.

7 On the juridical status of Italian partnership and especially the problem of liability, see Sapori, A., “Le compagnie mercantili toscane del dugento e dei primi del trecento: la responsibilità dei compagni verso i terzi,” Studi di storia economica, 3 vols., 3rd ed., (Florence, n.d.), II, 765–808Google Scholar.

8 For Lucchese commercial penetration of northern Europe, see F. Edler, “The Silk Trade of Lucca during the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries,” and T. Blomquist, “Trade and Commerce in Thirteenth-Century Lucca,” 56–81. See also R. de Roover, “The Organization of Trade,” 70–76.

9 Doehaerd, R., Les relations commerciales entre Gênes, la Belgique et I'Outremont d'après les archives notariales génoises aux XIIIe et XlVe siècles, 3 vols. (Bruxelles-Rome, 1941)Google Scholar. Madame Doehaerd's collection of the Genoese notarial instruments dealing with Italian trade with the north are a mine of information about the Lucchese in Genoa and their business organizations. This material puts in a clear light the importance of Genoa as an international entrepot in the period of the “commercial revolution.” For a discussion of Lucchese activities in Genoa, see T. Blomquist, “Trade and Commerce in Thirteenth Century Lucca,” 37–49.

10 R. Doehaerd, Les relations commerciales, no. 785.

11 Ferretto, A., Il codice diplomatico delle relazioni fra la Toscana e Lunigiana ai tempi di Dante (1265–1321), 2 pts., Atti della Società ligure di storia patria, XXXI (1901–1903)Google Scholar, passim.

12 For the Castracani, see my forthcoming article in Speculum, “The Castracani Family of Thirteenth-Century Lucca.”

13 For purposes of this study I have assumed that where no explicit evidence exists of relationship between the dominant family and those partners bearing another patronymic, the latter were outsiders. Continued research may well indicate collateral relationships in some cases, but it is doubtful that such discoveries would alter the above conclusions. On the evolution from the closed family partnership to the open structure, see A. Sapori, “Le compagnie mercantili toscane del dugento e dei primi del trecento,” 803–804 and R. de Roover, “The Organization of Trade,” 74–75.

14 T. Blomquist, “Trade and Commerce in Thirteenth-Century Lucca,” 37–55 deals with Lucchese penetration of Italian markets. For Lucchese contacts with Nimes, Narbonne, and Marseilles, see ibid., 62–66 and F. Edler, “The Silk Trade of Lucca,” 96–99.

15 For the Lucchese in the north, apart from the above indicated unpublished studies, see the work of F. Bouquelot, Etudes sur les foires de Champagne, 2 vols., published as Memoires presentées par divers savants a l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (Paris, 1865–1866)Google Scholar; Schaube, A., Storia del commercio dei popoli latini del Mediterraneo sino alla fine della crociate, tr. Bonfante, P. (Torino, 1915)Google Scholar; and Mirot, L., Études lucquoises (Paris, 1930)Google Scholar.

16 A treaty of 1153 concluded between Lucca and Genoa spelled out among its other provisions the terms under which Lucchese merchants might traverse Genoese territory on their way to and from the northern fairs: for the treaty see, Imperiale, C., ed., Codice diplomatico della Repubblica di Genova, 3 vols. (Rome, 1936–1942), I, no. 238Google Scholar. Count Thibault VI of Champagne, in 1222 granted protection and exemption from military service to Lucchese in Champagne, suggesting that Lucchese were sufficiently numerous to warrant special consideration and that their stay was of a duration to make them liable for a military obligation: see F. Bourquelot, Etudes sur les foires, I, 175 and A. Schaube, Storia del commercio, 422.

17 F. Bourquelot, Études sur les foires, I, 166, II, 15 and L. Mirot, Etudes lucquoises, 52, note 6.

18 T. Blomquist, “Trade and Commerce in Thirteenth-Century Lucca,” 57, note 7.

19 R. de Roover, “The Organization of Trade,” 70–88, has called attention to the significance of the establishment of permanent branch offices, as well as the structural innovations distinguishing the late thirteenth century from the fifteenth century mercantilebanking organization. For an example of the latter, see the same author's The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank (New York, 1966)Google Scholar.

20 Archivio di Stato in Lucca (Hereafter cited as ASL), Achivio dei Notari, registro 1, m. 15, (Notaries Bartolomeo Fulcieri, Tegrimo Fulcieri, Fulciero Fulcieri), fol. 295 v, 19 May, 1284; fol. 427, 30 August, 1284 for payment effected in Champagne by factores of Alberto Callianelli and Rainerio Mariani respectively.

21 Among the terms of the will of one Trasmundino Baldinocti Burlamacchi, a Lucchese silk merchant, was the provision for restitution of usury to the men of the towns que vocantur Ramerru episcopatu Trasi et Argilliera episcopatus Cialone. Troyes was a fair town while Chalon was a cloth producing center. For Trasmundino's will, see ASL, Archivio dei Notari, registro 1, n. 5 (Notary Gherardetto da Chiatri), fol. 19. For a similar restitution to French communities pro remedio anime sue et suorum peccatorum, see the testament drawn up in 1284 by Giovanni Paganelli Dulcis: ASL, Archivio dei Notari, registro 1, n. 15 (notaries Bartolomeo Fulcieri, Tegrimo Fulcieri, Fulciero Fulcieri), fol. 494v.

22 Bigwood, G., Le régime juridique et économique du commerce de L'Argent dans la Belgique au Moyen-Âge, 2 pts., published as Mémoires de l'Academie Royale de Belgique, Classe des Lettres et des Sciences morales et politiques, XIV (1921–1922), I, 180, 641Google Scholar.

23 Ibid., and L. Mirot, Études lucquoises, 53–54.

24 L. Mirot, Études lucquoises, 56 and Piton, C., Les Lombards en France et à Paris: leurs marques, leurs poids-monnaies, leur sceaux de plomb, 2 vols. (Paris, 1892–1893), I, 125Google Scholar.

25 For the Italian presence in England see Sapori, A., La compagnia dei Frescobaldi in Inghilterra (Florence, 1947)Google Scholar; Rhodes, W. E., “The Italian Bankers and their Loans to Edward I and Edward II,” Historical Essays by Members of the Owens College Manchester (London, 1902), 137–168Google Scholar; Whitwell, R., “Italian Bankers and the English Crown,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, XVII (1903), 175–233CrossRefGoogle Scholar and “English Monasteries and the Wool Trade in the Thirteenth Century,” Vierteljahrschrift für Sozialund Wirtschaftsgeschichte, II (1904), 1–33Google Scholar. See also Bigwood, G., “Un marché des matières premières: laines d'Angleterre et marchands italiens vers la fin du Xllle siècle,” Annales d'histoire économique et sociale, I (1930), 193–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar; W. E. Lunt, Financial Relations of the Papacy with England, and E. Re, “La compagnia dei Ricciardi,” as well as F. Edler, “The Silk Trade of Lucca,” 123–131 and T. Blomquist, “Trade and Commerce in Thirteenth-Century Lucca,” 67–81.

26 W. Lunt, Financial Relations, 598–599.

27 A. Sapori, La compagnia dei Frescobaldi in Inghilterra, 3–4, has divided the history of the Italians in England into three periods, each dominated by one company: the first extending from the appearance of the Ricciardi until their fall about 1300, the second dominated by the Frescobaldi until their decline from royal favor around 1311, and the third, the period of the Bardi and Peruzzi of Florence lasting until 1338.

28 T. Blomquist, “Trade and Commerce in Thirteenth-Century Lucca,” 67–81. For references to partners of these organizations and their business see the volumes relevant to the reigns of Henry III and Edward I in Calendar of Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, Calendar of Close Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office and the documents published by Bond, E. A., “Extracts from the Liberate Rolls Relative to Loans Supplied by Italian Merchants to the Kings of England in the 13th and 14th Centuries,” Archaelogia, XXVIII (1840), pt. 2, 207–326CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 This point is discussed by R. de Roover, “The Organization of Trade,” 87–89. See also the same author's The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank for an analysis of the pitfalls besetting fifteenth century business managers.

30 Chiaudano, M., “I Rothschild del Dugento, La Gran Tavola di Orlando Bonsignori,” Bullettino senese di storia patria, n.s., VI (1935), 119–120Google Scholar.

31 ASL, Archivio dei Notari, registro 9, m. 17 (Notary Alluminato Parensi, Bonifazio Parenti, Nicolao Passamonti), fol. 94.

32 See the example cited by Chiaudano, M., “Le compangie bancarie senesi nel Dugento,” Studi e documenti per la storia del diritto commerciale italiano nel secolo XIII (Torino, 1930), 38Google Scholar, in which a partner of the Rieciardi in England authenticated a document of procuration by affixing his seal and that of the partnership with the words: E io Rainieri sopradito con la mia mano abo jscrito quie di soto e messo lo mio sugelo con quelo de la compagnia.

33 Sapori, A., “Storia interna della compagnia mercantile dei Peruzzi,” Studi di storia economica, II, 665–669Google Scholar. R. de Roover, “The Organization of Trade,” 76.

34 There are numerous examples of partnership contracts in the Lucchese notarial documents. See the following as typical examples: Archivio capitolare, Lucca, LL 11, Notaio Ciabatto, fol. 176, 9 April 1238; ASL, Archivio dei Notari, registro 1, n. 15, (notaries Bartolomeo Fulcieri, Tegrimo Fulcieri, Fulciero Fulcieri), fol. 163v, 15 February 1284; ibid., fol. 385, 31 July 1284; ibid., fol. 473, 30 November 1284. See also the partnership agreements of the money-changers cited in T. Blomquist, “The Castracani Family of Thirteenth-Century Lucca.”

35 T. Blomquist, “Castracani Family,” note 25. See the above cited Archivio capitolare, LL 11, Notaio Ciabatto, fol. 176 for an example of such an arrangement.

36 Chiaudano, M., “Le compagnie bancarie senesi nel Dugento,” Studi e documenti per la storia del diritto commerciale italiano nel secolo XIII published as Memorie dell'Istituto Giuridico, Reale Universitá di Torino, VIII (1930), 30–31Google Scholar; A. Sapori, “Storia interna della Compagnia mercantile dei Peruzzi,” 672-680; R. de Roover, “The Organization of Trade,” 76–78. In the Lucchese contracts partners stipulating on behalf of their partnership did so pro se ipsis et pro aliis sociis pro quibus de rata promiserunt.

37 See for example ASL, Archivio dei Notari, registro 1, n. 15 (Notaries Bartolomeo Fulcieri, Tegrimo Fulcieri, Fulciero Fulcieri), fol. 385, 31 July, 1284: in capite dicti termini vel quando dicta societas seperabitur promisit (the one partner to the other)… et inde omni in capite dicti termini veram rationem et non perfuntoriam seu fictitiam facere.

38 As examples of contracts resulting from the dissolution of partnership, see ASL, Archivio dei Notari, registro 2. n. 18 [Notary Alluminato Parensi (1286, 1287, 1290)], fol. 14, 18 June 1287; fol. 40v, 11 December 1287: registro 1, n. 17 (Notary Alluminato Parensi (1299)).

39 For the settlement of a disputed partnership dissolution, see the above cited cartulary of the notary Alluminato Parensi (1286, 1287, 1290), fol. 14.

40 For the structure of the Medici enterprise, see R. de Roover, The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, especially 81–84.

41 ASL, Archivio dei Notari, registro 1, n. 15 (Notaries Bartolomeo Fulcieri, Tegrimo Fulcieri, Fulciero Fulcieri), fol. 163v, 15 February 1284.

42 In contracts in which two or more parties acted jointly they expressly stipulated their liability omnes similiter el quilibet eorum principaliter et in solidum.

43 The problem of the origins of limited partnership in Italy has given rise to considerable debate and a correspondingly sizable literature. The most recent consideration of the problem of which I am aware, A. Sapori, “Le compagnie mercantili toscane del dugento e dei primi del trecento,” concludes that in thirteenth-century Tuscany there were indeed more or less informal “variations of regular partnership” in which some participants enjoyed a limited liability. However, according to Professor Sapori, towards the end of the thirteenth century the governments and gilds of the various commercial centers began to take an interest in the internal structure of their cities’ partnerships. Accordingly, communal authorities and gilds, in order to protect the good name of their merchants abroad, reaffirmed in public law and mercantile practice the norm of joint and unlimited liability. Our Lucchese associations ad partem lucri might well be termed “variations of regular partnership.” However, whether they gave way in the fourteenth century to deposit at interest as the preferred form of raising capital, as Professor Sapori theorizes, remains a question yet to be investigated. Cf. the views of Arcangeli, A., “L'Origine ed i caratteri della societa in accomandita semplice,” and “Gli istituti del diritto commerciale nel Costituto senese del 1310,” in his Scritti di diritto commerciale ed agrario, 3 vols. (Padua, 1935–1936), I, 54–148Google Scholar and 159–244; Senigalia, Q., “Le compagnie bancarie senesi nei secoli XIII e XIV,” Studi senese nel Circolo Giuridico della R. Università, XIV, XXV (1907, 1908), 149–217Google Scholar, 3–66; M. Chiaudano, “Le compagnie bancarie senesi nel dugento”; L. Goldschmidt, Storia universale, 227–228.

44 For representative examples see ASL, Archivio dei Notari, registro 1, n. 12 (Notary Bartolomeo Tacchi di Gerardino), fol. 66, 7 March 1272; registro 1, n. 12 (Notary Paganello di Fiandrada), fol. 16v. 28 January 1273 and fol. 54, 26 June 1273; registro 1, n. 15 (Notaries Bartolomeo Fulcieri, Tegrimo Fulcieri, Fulciero Fulcieri), fol. 8, 5 January 1284.

45 Although there are no surviving references to interest among the Lucchese documents, Lopez, H.S., La prima crisi della banca de Genova (1250–1259), (Milan, 1956), 34–35Google Scholar has indicated that the banks of the Genoese money-changers paid a 10 per cent return on deposits and M. Chiaudano, “Affari e contabilita dei banchieri fiorentini nel Dugento,” Studi e documenti, 70–72 has shown that deposits with Florentine bankers earned the same rate.

46 Q. Senigalia, “Le compagnie bancarie senesi nei secoli XIII e XIV,” has, for example, suggested that the Florentine and Sienese institutions of accomandigia were the precursors of limited partnership because the depositor shared proportionally in the profits of the entire enterprise. These he has called “irregular deposit.” R. de Roover, The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank-, 104 has argued that a contractual arrangement, similar to the association ad partem lucri, although reading as a partnership agreement “involving participation in profits or losses of a business venture” was instead a deposit certificate providing for the payment of interest. For the reasons set forth below I would maintain, however, that association ad partem lucri was considered by contemporaries to be a form of partnership and not a deposit. Deposits in the Lucchese sources were specifically termed depositum or depositum seu accomandigia: see T. Blomquist, “The Castracani Family of Thirteenth-Century Lucca.” Lecce, M., “Mutui commerciali a Verona nel trecento,” Economia e Storia, IX (1962), 213–219Google Scholar, refers to the investor participating in the fourteenth century Veronese Instrumentum societatis sive mutui, an institution similar in some respects to the Lucchese association ad partem lucri, as a “near partner", quasi socio.

47 A. Ferretto, II codice diplomatico, I, no. 673: on 10 September 1272 the partnership's agent in Genoa, Rabito Ugolini Teste, procurator of the partners Bartolomeo and Lanfranco, sons of the late Orlando Bettori, Pietro Ugolinelli, Gottefredo Conetti Bonosti, Caccianemico Overardi, and Stefano Giovanni Pisanelli, received a sum Genoese from one Lanfranco Ceba which he promised to repay at the Fair of Troyes with £ 200 provinois. The partnership received sizable sums in deposit from the Genoese nephews of Pope Innocent IV. On 7 October 1273 Cardinal Ottobono Fieschi instructed “his friends Bartolomeo, Buongiomo and others of the Bettori of Lucca” to pay his brother, Nicolo Fieschi, £ 4,000 tourois from his account with them: see ibid., no. 786. One week later the agent of Nicolaus de Flische, palatini et lavanie comes, one magister Phinus de Sancto Stefano, received the above sum from the Bettori in Lucca. The same contract also shows that the Cardinal had deposits of £ 4,000 Genoese with the Ricciardi, £ 6,000 Genoese with the Chiarrenti of Pistois and 500 marks of silver with the Adamati, also of Pistoia. For the original of the above document see ASL, Archivio dei Notari, registro 1, n. 12 (Notary Paganello di Fiandrada), fol. 80v.

48 Pietro Ugolinelli was in England as early as 1255: Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry III (1247–1258), 404. During the 1270's the patent rolls indicate that the partnership was represented in England by Aldebrandino and Theobaldo Malagalye, Stefano Pitutelli, Niccolò Teste and Ugolino Ugolinelli.

49 ASL, Archivio dei Notari, registro 1, n. 12 (Notary Paganello di Fiandrada), fol. 16v.

50 Ibid., fol. 77.

51 Ibid., fol. 54.

52 ASL, Archivio dei Notari, registro 1, n. 15 (Notaries Bartolomeo Fulcieri, Tegrimo Fulcieri, Fulcerio Fulcieri), fol. 8.

53 ASL, Archwio dei Notari, registro 3, n. 13 (Notary Armanno di Armanno, fol. 5.

54 Ibid., fol. 36.