Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/307424 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
EHES Working Paper No. 271
Publisher: 
European Historical Economics Society (EHES), s.l.
Abstract: 
This paper quantifies the impact of the 1630-1631 Italian plague on the business activities of the Florentine merchant-bank Saminiati & Guasconi. Employing AI for handwriting recognition on over 6,000 bank letters we show that letters and goods transactions decreased by two-thirds when a merchant lived in an infected town although this negative effect was halved when the correspondent also resided in an infected town. Mentions of precious coins however increased reflecting a flight to the safety of hard currency. The plague also shifted the bank's merchant network towards Southern and Eastern Europe and away from the Atlantic Coast.
Subjects: 
merchants
plague
trade
JEL: 
N00
N73
N83
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.