Abstract:
This article aims to provide a clearer account of the financial instruments and investments employed by major Genoese merchantbankers to intermediate the global silver trade during the 17th and 18th centuries. Drawing on recent literature, as well as the private accounts and correspondence of Genoese financiers, the analysis traces the evolving role of the instruments used to channel Spanish-American bullions into the European monetary system, with particular attention to maritime loans and bills of exchange. Rather than presenting a linear progression from supposedly traditional to modern instruments, it demonstrates that the rise, persistence, and eventual decline of the Genoese trading community as a global supplier of silver were underpinned by coexisting instruments whose roles shifted in response to changes in noble investors' portfolio structures and transformations in European trade and finance. As this paper argues, the growing involvement in transatlantic trade after 1650, followed by increased investment in continental European debt - after a period marked by financial dealings with the Spanish monarchy - are key to understanding the non-linear evolution of these instruments.
