The Monte di Pietà and the Politics of Finance in 15th-Century Italy

This presentation will discuss the evolution of monti di pietà, charitable pawnshops promoted by the Franciscan Order, within the context of European state formation. The first monti di pietà were established in the fifteenth century with the goal of offering low-interest loans to the poor and thereby supplanting Jewish moneylenders. At the time, most Jewish moneylenders in Central and Northern Italy operated under the protection of regional powers, such as Florence, Venice, or the Papal States. At the outset, therefore, the mission of the monti was at odds with these powers, and for this reason, the monti gained the greatest traction in cities that were either subjugated by these territorial states or threatened by their rapid expansion. My analysis of cases such as Perugia and Florence, among others, will suggest that the monti, in these cities, became symbols of popular resistance against the expanding state powers.