XVI.-COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY OF FLORENCE DURING THE RENAISSANCE. BY WALTER B. SCAIFE, PH. D. (VIENNA). COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY OF FLORENCE DURING THE RENAISSANCE. By WALTER B. SCAIFE, Ph. D. (Vienna.) Le commerce est la base et l'âme d'un empire; One of the greatest surprises in Florentine history is the fact that this people, which was so violent in its political quarrels, so magnificent in its patronage of the arts, so simple in its home life, and so lavish in its entertainments, was at the same time a nation of business men. Yet such was the fact, often remarked on by their own chroniclers and marveled at by foreign historians. A good illustration of their practical philosophy of life is furnished by one of their old proverbs, which "Who wants his mind active must make his hands hard." ("Chi vuol che il mento balli, alle mane faccia i calli.”) We are so accustomed to think of the Italians passing their lives in dolce far niente that it is difficult for us to realize that the Florentines of the Renaissance were one of the most industrious people that have ever made a name for themselves in the world's history. Only after the Medici became installed as princes did leisure become fashionable and men begin to think more of show than of business and culture. runs All business and even professional life of the age centered in guilds, and accordingly it is from a study of them that we may hope to get a glimpse here and there through the veil which Time gradually lets fall over the commercial life of a people. In Florence every branch of trade or manufacture either had its own independent guild or was affiliated to one of a more important calling. The number of independent guilds varied somewhat from time to time, according as the less important were able to assert themselves or were held in check by the more powerful ones. There were two main divi sions, called, respectively, the Arti Maggiori and the Arti Minori, or the greater and lesser guilds, there being usually seven of the former and fourteen of the latter, although their number was liable to change as above indicated. The connection between the guilds and the government was so intimate that the subject requires at least a passing notice. In the first place, the rights of citizenship could be exercised only by such as were regularly enrolled as members of certain guilds; these guilds had furthermore the right of electing certain high officials of the government, and on one occasion the most powerful of the guilds, that of the woolen trade, signed as guarantor, along with the government, a treaty of peace with the city of Siena. Owing to this intimate connection the ups and downs of business were apt to be accompanied with political disturbances, and the early revolutions of Florence are to be attributed in some measure to this fact. The laws governing trade were very strict, especially in the case of delinquent debtors. These were cast into a loathsome prison, underfed and maltreated, while their debts went on increasing, and they themselves were deprived of the opportunity of doing any business or of earning the means of discharging their obligations. To add to the horror of their situation, a law of 1398 provided that any prisoner for debt might be compelled to perform the duty of public executioner. Against bankruptcy, the laws were equally severe. In the early days, failure in business legally disqualified a man forever from holding office under the government, and a much later law permitted the creditors to conduct a bankrupt to the Mercato Nuovo, and there amuse themselves by butting him on a certain stone in the form of a broad wheel. The judiciary system of Florence was peculiar, but we shall not enter upon it here further than to call attention to the fact that there was a special court for the adjudication of disputes arising out of differences in commercial transactions. This court was called "Mercanzia" or "Mercatanzia," and was composed of six judges, of whom the presiding one was often a nonresident of Florence. This is a good illustration of a prevalent idea of the Italians of that day which regulated many public offices, namely, that a nonresident was apt to be more impartial in the rendering of judgment than a fellowcitizen. This body of men is said to have combined the functions that to-day are performed by a court of justice and those of the modern chamber of commerce. Arbitration, too, was also in vogue, and seems to have been a not uncommon method of settling commercial disputes. At the head of the guilds was placed the one of most dignity and learning, not of the greatest wealth, namely, that of the judges and notaries. In the time of Villani its members numbered from 80 to 100 judges and about 600 notaries. The judges must have completed a certain line of study and become doctors of laws; and, it may be added, the official etiquette of the time required men of other callings to take off their hats to these in salutation. The notaries were not only the official witnesses to important documents, but frequently also the administrators of trustee funds, agents in business negotiations, etc. The second guild was called "Arte di Calimala," and was composed of those merchants who imported French cloths, and, by processes known only to themselves, finished and dyed them, bringing them to great perfection. Though there were but twenty houses engaged in this business, they were not only rich, but also politically powerful and useful. In the thirteenth century their guild hall was the meeting place of a municipal council of thirty-six, which exercised so much influence in the shaping of public policy that a modern Florentine historian has remarked: "From this shop came out at one bound, as if of itself, the Republic of Florence." By far the most celebrated of the Florentine guilds, and that which has had, perhaps, the most influence on the world at large, was the "Arte del Cambio," or of the money-changers. Though Florence can not lay claim to have been the first city to establish a bank, she was in all probability the inventor of the art of exchange, one of the most important functions of modern banks, while the extent of her-banking connections, together with the sums of money involved, made her the banker of the largest part of the then civilized world. In the city itself there were eighty banking houses, whose ramifications extended far and wide. Already in the fourteenth century the Peruzzi had sixteen branch houses in different cities of Europe, and other Florentine bankers were not far behind them. The popes, the kings of England, France, and Naples were numbered among their customers; and the greater part of the banking business of private individuals in those countries was also conducted through the same channel. The interest on loans varied at that time as to-day, according |