Why did borrowing become cheap, safe and accessible in some societies, while remaining costly and exclusive in others? This question cuts to the root ofpreindustrial economic divergence. Dominant explanations built from English and Dutch cases stress institutional credibility, property rights and public debt.They are powerful but incomplete: they cannot explain Europe’s diverse private-credit outcomes. IRIS (Interest Rates in the Italian States) tests them wherethey are most exposed: the Italian Peninsula.
Between 1500 and 1800, Italy combined the institutional inheritance of Europe’s first financial revolution - notarial networks, public-debt institutions, densecommercial cities - with political fragmentation and sharp regional divergence. This makes the peninsula an ideal laboratory: nearby markets shared broadfeatures, yet differed in institutions, liquidity, intermediation and market integration.
IRIS connects borrowing costs and lending conditions to the contexts in which credit operated. Its Main Objective is to explain why borrowing costs andlending conditions evolved differently across the peninsula, and what this meant for integration, resilience and regional divergence. Five Specific Objectivesstructure the analysis: a) mapping real-estate and commercial borrowing costs across the peninsula; b) explaining regional and North-South divergence,considering the impact several key drivers (institutional change/enforcement, liquidity, fiscal pressure and public-private finance, market integration); c)measuring financial integration across political borders; d) reconstructing lending conditions and gendered participation; e) testing market resilience toinstitutional shocks.
IRIS rests on four harmonized databases. DB1 reconstructs collateralized real-estate credit from about 12,000-14,000 notarial contracts in Genoa, Milan,Brescia, Venice, Bologna, Rome, Florence, Naples and Palermo. DB2 analyzes commercial credit through the Caccini del Vernaccia correspondence. DB3uses southern fiscal sources, including catasti and riveli, to capture urban and rural credit in the Mezzogiorno. DB4 studies Venetian livelli affrancabili at five-year benchmarks, 1805-1820. A PI-tested data model preserves local specificity while ensuring comparability. Quantitative interest-rate analysis is combinedwith contractual, institutional and network analysis.
Four research units contribute expertise in notarial credit, commercial finance, public debt, fiscal and legal-institutional history, gender history andquantitative methods. IRIS will deliver the first peninsula-wide reconstruction of Italian private credit markets, producing: 7-10 peer-reviewed articles; anedited volume; a workshop and international conference; open datasets and a data and methods paper. It will place Italian evidence at the centre ofEuropean debates on credit, institutions, market integration and regional divergence.
Between 1500 and 1800, Italy combined the institutional inheritance of Europe’s first financial revolution - notarial networks, public-debt institutions, densecommercial cities - with political fragmentation and sharp regional divergence. This makes the peninsula an ideal laboratory: nearby markets shared broadfeatures, yet differed in institutions, liquidity, intermediation and market integration.
IRIS connects borrowing costs and lending conditions to the contexts in which credit operated. Its Main Objective is to explain why borrowing costs andlending conditions evolved differently across the peninsula, and what this meant for integration, resilience and regional divergence. Five Specific Objectivesstructure the analysis: a) mapping real-estate and commercial borrowing costs across the peninsula; b) explaining regional and North-South divergence,considering the impact several key drivers (institutional change/enforcement, liquidity, fiscal pressure and public-private finance, market integration); c)measuring financial integration across political borders; d) reconstructing lending conditions and gendered participation; e) testing market resilience toinstitutional shocks.
IRIS rests on four harmonized databases. DB1 reconstructs collateralized real-estate credit from about 12,000-14,000 notarial contracts in Genoa, Milan,Brescia, Venice, Bologna, Rome, Florence, Naples and Palermo. DB2 analyzes commercial credit through the Caccini del Vernaccia correspondence. DB3uses southern fiscal sources, including catasti and riveli, to capture urban and rural credit in the Mezzogiorno. DB4 studies Venetian livelli affrancabili at five-year benchmarks, 1805-1820. A PI-tested data model preserves local specificity while ensuring comparability. Quantitative interest-rate analysis is combinedwith contractual, institutional and network analysis.
Four research units contribute expertise in notarial credit, commercial finance, public debt, fiscal and legal-institutional history, gender history andquantitative methods. IRIS will deliver the first peninsula-wide reconstruction of Italian private credit markets, producing: 7-10 peer-reviewed articles; anedited volume; a workshop and international conference; open datasets and a data and methods paper. It will place Italian evidence at the centre ofEuropean debates on credit, institutions, market integration and regional divergence.