Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2011
1 I wish to thank the American Bankers Association and the Lincoln Educational Foundation for grants which enabled me to spend two years of research (1967–1969) in the archives and libraries of Venice.
2 Another financial institution, the communal Grain Office, also extended credit occasionally. Its principal financial function, however, was to accept deposits on which it paid fixed rates of return and make the money available to the state as a floating debt. The Grain Office will be the subject for discussion in another place.