In the early modern period hoarded jewels and precious stones performed diversified functions, ranging from the cultural to the socio-economic sphere. This article analyses their use as an alternative to cash in 16th-century Venice, focusing on the case study of the Jewish ghetto. The aim is to investigate how those objects were employed in the credit market (and to perform advanced financial business) and to test their interchangeability with metal currency; if not their preferred recourse. To enhance this trend, Renaissance Venice was experiencing widespread access to those items among a large part of the population. How women could profit from those money-equivalent goods, thanks to the peculiarities of Venetian law in the matter of dowries and inheritance, will be also examined.
Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-0039-2660
Chapter Title
Perle, gioie e pegni. Il ruolo dei preziosi nel mercato del credito e degli scambi nella Venezia cinquecentesca
Authors
Rachele Scuro
Language
Italian
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0347-0.22
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2024
Copyright Information
© 2024 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Mezzi di scambio non monetari. Merci e servizi come monete alternative nelle economie dei secoli XIII-XVIII / Alternative currencies. Commodities and services as exchange currencies in the monetarized economies of the 13th to 18th centuries
Editors
Angela Orlandi
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
592
Publication Year
2024
Copyright Information
© 2024 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0347-0
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0346-3
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0347-0
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0348-7
Series Title
Datini Studies in Economic History
Series ISSN
2975-1241
Series E-ISSN
2975-1195