The book Monetizzare il credito – La Cassa di Sconto del Banco delle due Sicilie (1818-1860) of Paola Avallone is now available.

Table of content

Abstract

This book reconstructs the discount service that was practised in Naples, focusing on the actions of the Cassa di Sconto annexed to the Banco delle due Sicilie from the early 19th century until national unification. With the return of the Bourbons to the throne, it was necessary to rethink and restructure the main credit institutions in a logic of modernisation, and above all those that had been the procedures adopted for centuries to realise the financing of the State and private operators. The Cassa di Sconto, attached to the only public bank in the Mezzogiorno, was created precisely to respond at least in part to this need. However, since the purpose with which it was established responded more to a political need than to an economic logic, it found itself operating with a thousand difficulties, linked to the not easy domestic and international economic situation and to the complicated way in which it was supposed to function. Despite this, the scale of the services offered to the public demonstrates the commercial fervour of the Neapolitan piazza in the first half of the 19th century. Larry Neal, who signs the preface to the volume, emphasises how the amount of data used to reconstruct the history of the discount provides a solid basis for comparison with other financial systems that contributed to the spread of financial capitalism at a global level.

Paola Avallone is a Research Director of the National Research Council at the Institute for Studies on the Mediterranean in Naples. She focuses on the economic history of Southern Italy between the 16th and 19th centuries, with a particular focus on banking, insurance, local institutions, and the mobility of people and goods. Her numerous publications include ‘Beyond the Capital: A Survey of Charitable Institutions in the Kingdom of Naples’ (Toronto, 2022).

For further information, please visit the publisher’s website.