Making of the Modern Corporation

This book traces the origins of a financial institution the modern corporation in Genoa and reconstructs its diffusion in England the Netherlands and France. At its inception the Casa di San Giorgio (14071805) was entrusted with managing the public debt in Genoa. Over time it took on powers we now ascribe to banks and states accruing financial characteristics and fiscal political and territorial powers. As one of the earliest central banks it ruled territories and local populations for almost a century. It controlled strategic Genoese possessions near and far including the island of Corsica the city of Famagusta (in Cyprus) and trading posts in Crimea the Black Sea the Lunigiana in northern Tuscany and various towns in Liguria. In the early sixteenth century in his Florentine Histories (Book VIII Chapter 29) Niccol Machiavelli was the first to analyze the relationship between the Casa di San Giorgios financial and territorial powers declaring its possession of territories as the basis of its ascendancy. Later the founders of some of the earliest corporations including the Dutch East India Company (1602) the Bank of England (1694) and John Laws Mississippi Company (1720) in France referenced the model of the Casa di San Giorgio.The Open Access version of this book available at taylorfrancis has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.