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Family Partnerships and Joint Ventures in the Venetian Republic1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Frederic C. Lane
Frederic C. Lane
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University
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Extract

Corporations have been the big basic units of recent American business; in the Venetian Republic the basic units of business life were family partnerships. To be sure, since a Venetian family partnership was not an organization formed for business purposes only, it did not correspond exactly to a corporation. There were in the Venetian economy during the Later Middle Ages some enterprises which required the use of so much capital that normally several families banded together to spread the risks and for such occasions they formed joint ventures. From some points of view these joint ventures, rather than the family partnerships, corresponded in Venetian economy to the corporation in modern economy; for they were organized for strictly business purposes, they involved large capitals, and their ownership was divided into shares. But the joint ventures lacked the permanence of the modern corporation and they had quite limited objectives. They lasted only for the duration of a voyage or until a cargo had been sold. Moreover, they did not have so large capital funds as did the family partnerships which created them. Venetian business enterprise, having been fathered by the state and mothered by the family, remained subordinated to these older and stronger institutions. This fact is not surprising, for when viewed in historical perspective the modern corporation appears a parvenu of uncertain future. In most societies, at most times, it has been the great family which by its wealth, power, prestige, and presumption of permanence has been the outstanding institution in private economic enterprise.

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Articles
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The Journal of Economic History , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , November 1944 , pp. 178 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1944

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References

2 Molmenti, Pompeo, La storia di Venezia nella vita privata (7th ed.; Bergamo, 1927), I, 456Google Scholar; Pertile, Antonio, Storia del diritto italiano (2d ed.; Turin, 1894), III, 282Google Scholar.

3 The fortune of Cosimo deʼ Medici and his brother in 1440 was 235,137 florins and rose, according to Sieveking's estimate, to 400,000 florins in 1460. Sieveking, Heinrich, “Die Handlungsbücher der Medici,” Sitzungsberichte der Philosophisch-Historischen Klasse der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften [Vienna], Vol. 151 (Vienna, 1905)Google Scholar, Abhandlung V, pp. 4, 11–12. Both the florin and the ducat contained about 3.5 grams of gold. The relative value of money is somewhat indicated by the fact that the salary authorized for a skilled worker to supervise the repairs on the ducal palace in 1483 was 100 ducats a year. Malipiero, Dominico, Annati veneti dell'anno 1457 al 1500 (ed. Gar, Tommaso and Sagredo, Augustino) in Archivio storico italiano, Ser. i, Vol. VII, Florence, 1843), p. 674Google Scholar.

4 Ibid., p. 666, and cf. p. 661.

5 Lane, Frederic C., “Venetian Bankers, 1496–1533: A Study in the Early Stages of Deposit Banking,” The Journal of Political Economy, XLV (April 1937), 187–206CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 MS, Diario di Marcantonio Michiel, Museo Civico-Correr, Venice, MS Cicogna 2848 (MI, 469), ff. 288 v° –28g r°.

7 Marino Sanuto, l diarii (58 vols.; Venice, 1879–1903), XXXV, 376; XXXVI, 410; XXXVII, 40; XLVIII, 137, 237; XLIX, 124–3, 240; LII, 79, 82.

8 Archivio di Stato di Venezia (cited hereafter as A.S.V.), Registri Privati, Raccolta Barbarigo-Grimani, registri contabili, registers 19–24. The most informative is register 21, a ledger compiled for the executors by copying balances from other books, mainly from a book referred to as “Libro B.” The nature of these entries shows that Libro B must have been the ledger of a Pisani fraterna. Perhaps it included all three brothers but the weight of evidence is to the effect that the fraterna included only Almorò and Lorenzo. The will of Lorenzo Pisani (A.S.V., Archivio notarile, notaio Gerolamo di Bossis, Testimenti, III, no. 33), drawn up in 1511, refers to the “dittam nostram vocatam Lorenzo et Almorò Pisani” and makes provisions in case Almorò does or does not wish to continue “dictam dittam.” Besides being an interestingly, early example of Venetian use of ditta, the passage implies that already in 1511 Alvise had withdrawn from the family partnership, at least in name. Since Alvise was then already a banker he may have wished to separate his brothers' obligations from those which he, as banker, had to assume. To be sure, one of the accounts carried over from Libro B is that of “Alvise Pisani e fradelli.” But the balance is much smaller than would be expected if this were really the Capital account of Libre B, and the account of Alvise Pisani e fradelli may concern only tax levies which were still levied or recorded jointly. I cannot identify any entry in the surviving books as the balance of the account which had, in Libro B, served a Capital account. Perhaps that account did not interest the executors who, in a new book (reg. 19), opened a new Capital account for the estate of Almorò. On the other hand, the practical co-operation between Alvise and his brothers and the identification of Alvise with the fraterna in common opinion appears in connection with the voyage of the galleys of Barbary of 1519. Marino Sanuto, the well-informed diarist of the time, says that Alvise Pisani had forty-six of the forty-eight shares of the two galleys. Diarii, XXX, 103, 109. Libro B of the Pisani showed ownership of some of these shares, so that either Sanuto was mistaken or Alvise had some share in the fraterna of which Libro B was the record.

9 On surviving Venetian account books see my forthcoming book, Andrea Barbarigo, Merchant of Venice, 1418–1449 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1944), pp. 137–50Google Scholar.

10 MS, Museo Civico-Correr, Venice, Archivio Tron Donà, uncatalogued, but brought to my attention by a hint from Mr. and Mrs. de Roover and by the kindness of the Librarian, Signore M. Brunetti. Studied on photofilms in my possession. It is cited hereafter as Priuli Journal. On the family see Fulin, Rinaldo, “Girolamo Priuli e i suoi diarii,” Archivio veneto, XXII (1881), 137–54Google Scholar.

11 A.S.V., Miscellanea Gregolin, busta 10, Lettere commerciali, 1482–99, and some detached sheets in buste 12 bis. Studied on photofilms in my possession.

12 Sanuto, Diarii, XXXV, 389.

13 The figure 250,000 ducats is reached by assuming that Alvise's wealth was, like that of the other brothers, about 85,000 ducats, the sum debited to their accounts in the liquidation. A.S.V., Raccolta Barbarigo-Grimani as cited, reg. 21, k. 105, 123. This checks approximately with the credits to the new Capital account of the Almorò estate in ibid., reg. 19.

14 Pertile, Storia del diritto italiano, III, 282.

15 It is referred to by Sanuto and the Priuli Journal as the bank of Alvise Pisani simply, and its accounts were not carried into reg. 21 (Raccolta Barbarigo-Grimani) as accounts of the fraterna.

16 On the number and size of Venetian banks of the time see my figures in The Journal of Political Economy, XLV, 187–206.

17 This interpretation is suggested to me by Cessi, Roberto, Note per la storia delle società di commercio net Medio Evo in Italia (Rome, 1917)Google Scholar, estratto dalla Rivista italiana di scienze giuridiche, March 1917, pp. 3–5, and idem, “Studi sulle ‘Maone’ medioevali,” Archivio storico italiano, Anno LXXVII (1919), Vol. I [serie 6, tomo 13], pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

18 Sanuto, Diarii, II, 27, 1335; III, 733; LIII, 509. For Pisani's shares in the wine tax and for all the foregoing description of Pisani assets see A.S.V., Raccolta Barbarigo-Grimani as cited, reg. 21 passim.

19 Lane, Frederic C., Venetian Ships and Shipbuilders of the Renaissance (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1934), pp. 24–6Google Scholar; Sottas, Jules, Les Messageries maritimes de Venise aux xiv & xv siècles (Paris, 1938), pp. 106–36Google Scholar; Sanuto, Diarii, VIII, 474.

20 Sottas, pp. 71, 89, 90, 94.

21 This is the more common term, and that given by Giuseppe Boerio, Dizionario del dialello veneziano (Venice, 1867), s.v., but caratadori was also used.

22 Cf. the Barbary galleys mentioned above in note 8.

23 Sanuto, Diam, VI, 45, 67, 209, 249. The Fleet Commander (Capitanio) wrote from Southampton that they would have 17,000 ducats of freight, presumably on the return voyage.

24 For the patron's account had been kept in sterling. The entry reads: “Per Galia de Fiandre pattrono Federigo Morexini, Capettanio Ser Marco Antonio Contarini // A ser Federigo Morexini come patrono per tanti ne asegna per suo conto montar dita galia ducati 7503 grossi 7, che tocha a noi per karatti 8 ducati 2501, grossi 2, computando i danari ave de Vincenzo a sterlina 54 per ducato, val L. 250, s. 2, d. 2 p.-.” Priuli Journal, k. 19.

25 Raccolta Barbarigo-Grimani as cited, reg. 21, k. 12, 13, 76, 77, 103, 138.

26 Otherwise the patron would have had to put up the money. Full record of the payments made by the Priuli as parcenevoli to their patron is not available since their Journal begins when the galleys were already in the West and some payments were presumably made earlier. But an entry of September 30, 1505 (k. 5), records the payment to the patron by Vincenzo of £264 13s. 6d. sterling or 1,323 ducats (at 48 ducats per £ St.), and the following entry April 28, 1507 (k. 19), if completed, would apparently have balanced the account of “Morexini come patron”: “Per Ser Federigo Morexini come patron // A Ser Vincenzo mio fiol per conto da viazo [?] per tanti dito Ferigo li fa boni come per suo conto apar per quelo dice dover aver da noi per il resto de la galea [for the amount said Federigo shows by his account he has credited to him (Vincenzo) against what he (Federigo) says he should have from us for the balance of the galley account] ducati 96, grossi 8. Non li trazi fuori perche ne he eror in dito conto che Ser Federigo Morexini mete aver auto dal Vincenzo in ponente £257 17s. sd. de sterlina et Vincenzo mi asegna averli dato £264 13s. 6d. de sterlina. Et perho questo partida stara sospexa fina sia dechiarita.”

27 A number of assignments to the Priuli of their share of the subsidy are under October 1, 1506 (k. xv), and December 30, 1506 (k. xvi). For example, the first reads: “Per Hoffitio di governadori del Intrade per conto de Cresiamenti // A Galia de Fiandra, patron Federigo Morexini, Capitanio Ser Marco Antonio Contarini, in la qual participo in 1/3, per tanti dito Ser Federigo ne scripsse questo giorno per parte del don de dita galea, deli carati 8 me aspeta—L.32, s.-, d.-, p.-.” What appears to be the settlement for freights reads (k. 21): “Per Francesco Foscari e fradelli fo de Ser Nicolò // A galia de Fiandre patronizata per Ser Federigo Morexini, Capitanio Ser Marco Antonio Contarini, che mi tocho i ditti per debitori per la nostra parte di ducati 600 el he sta conza la loro partida, come apar per poliza de Santo de Caxa [scrivan] ….” The collection of freights was complicated by the fact that many freights were paid to the Arsenal, in this instance as a penalty for overloading. Both Priuli and Pisani settled the payment of some freight on the wares they shipped on their galleys by crediting their Galley account. Priuli Journal, k. xxiii; Raccolta Barbarigo-Grimani, reg. 21, k. 76.

28 Priuli Journal, k. 5 and v (left-hand pages are numbered in Arabic, right hand in Roman).

29 Ibid., k. 19. The total cost of their share of the wine was about 750 ducats.

30 Priuli, Girolamo, I diarii, Vol. II (ed. Cessi, Roberto, Bologna, 1933–7Google Scholar, in Rerum Italicarum scriptores, 2d ed., Vol. 24, Part III), pp. 352–6, and earlier, p. 168.

31 Priuli Journal, k. 9 (February 28, 1505 Venetian style, 1506 new style) “Per piombi pezi 54 comprati per Maona di Caratadori dele galie Capitanio Ser Marco Antonio Contarini.” I have not found the word maona in the official records (for example in Senato, Mar) and it is not given in Boerio, Dizionario, so it is surprising to find it used in the Priuli Journal and in the da Lezze letter cited below, in exactly the sense in which it was used more than a hundred years earlier at Genoa, according to Cessi, Roberto, “Studi sulle ‘Maone’ mediovali,” Archivio storico italiano (1919), Vol. I, pp. 5–9, 15–22Google Scholar. The Venetian use confirms Cessi's demonstration that the maone were not, strictly speaking, associations of bondholders, but associations of the owners or shareholders of a fleet.

32 Such an agreement among the patroni for the administration of all freights as one corpo is attached to the Commission of the Capitanio of the galleys al trafego of 1486, MS, Museo Civico-Correr, Venice, MS III, 1057, ff. 19–21. Studied on microfilm.

33 “Et perche chomo tu sai ditti pattroni siano convenutti insieme fra loro che in chaxo chʼ el manchasse lana per el chargo di ditte galie ogniuno deno far per la sua ratta sacchi 500 de lana fino a la summa di sacchi 2000 …. I sachi di lana farai per conto di la maona, quelli se convegniera chargar e vegnir in questa terra in nome di patroni per uno montte ….” A.S.V., Miscellanea Gregolin, busta 10 Lettere commerciali, 1482–1499. Copialettere of Michele da Lezze filed under the year 1497, f. 38 verso.

34 Since the purchase of the soap and the amount to be bought were left to the discretion of the individual patroni, the contract did not create any obligation to load soap so as to assure a full cargo. On the other hand, the contract did stipulate in regard to both the soap and the gallnuts that if one of the galleys lacked space to load its share of these wares because of the obligation on the galleys to load spices in preference to other merchandise, the other galleys would take all tbey could up to the amounts specified in the contract. A.S.V., Miscellanea Gregolin, Lettere commerciali, busta 10, filed under year 1487. In the same busta, under 1487 and 1491, are papers about a law suit over some other soap loaded on these galleys which the owner thought should have been sold by the patron acting for the maona along with the soap of the maona, but which was not so sold. At least one competitor felt he had been kept off the market by unfair practice. Although the contract concerns a maona it does not use the word.

35 Gras, N. S. B., Business and Capitalism, An Introduction to Business History (New York: F. S. Crofts and Company, 1939), p. 67.Google Scholar

36 The Casa di San Giorgio of Genoa was a great many things at once and had some of the features of a chartered joint-stock company, although, to be sure, these were overshadowed by other features of that many-sided institution. Heinrich Sieveking, Genueser Finanzwesen, Vol. II, Die Casa di S. Giorgio in Abhandlungen der badischen Hochschulen, III (Freiburg, 1899). Cf. the judgment of Doren, Alfred, Sloria economica dcll'Italia nel Medio Evo, trans. Luzzatto, G. (Padua, 1937), pp. 423–4Google Scholar. On the other hand, clear cases of fifteenth-century Portuguese joint-stock companies are described in Fitzler, Hedwig M. A., “Portugiesische Handelsgesellschaften des 15. und beginnenden 16. Jahrhunderts,” Vicrteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, XXV (1932), 209–49Google Scholar. On the sixteenth century, see Strieder, Jakob, Studien zur Geschichte kapitalistischer Organisalionsformen (2d ed.; Munich and Leipzig, 1925Google Scholar), and Scott, William Robert, Constitution and Finance of English, Scottish and Irish Joint-Stock Companies to 1720 (3 vols., Cambridge, 1910–1912Google Scholar).

37 Cessi, Nota per la storia dette società, pp. 50–8; Doren, Storia economica, pp. 420–22.