16th and 17th century Venetian banks and financiers?

How was Venice's situation IOTL when it came to commerce and banking? I know the discovery of the Americas combined with the Ottoman conquest really crippled them as it destroyed their main trade routes and is what slowly began their decline., Genoa was still on the decline too, but essentially entered a silver age under under Charles V and Philip II. In the period of 1520 to 1556 for instance, they made vast loans that resulted in vast profits.

Now, when you think of Genoese Banks, the Bank of St. George almost immediately springs to mind, given the work they did in Corsica, even owning it for a time. I'm doing some research for my TL, Prince of Peace, and an arc involves loans being secured from both the Genoese and the Venetians. Naturally I thought of the Bank of St. George, but in this period was it really banks who made loans, but rather wealthy individuals and financiers who provided money from their own pockets or their own sources to provide private loans to their monarchs: people such as the Fuggers, - Benedict Spinola, and Thomas Gresham? I am leaning towards the individuals idea; if so can anyone point me towards any of these individuals who may of been Venetian origin and involved in loans? Or even a known Venetian banks would be of some help. Even known financiers or banks within the Republic of Ragusa, despite their less significant clout, would be of great help.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
You had the Medici Bank in Florence running most of the finance show for awhile. By the 17th Century, though, the action had shifted mainly to the Netherlands.
 
You had the Medici Bank in Florence running most of the finance show for awhile. By the 17th Century, though, the action had shifted mainly to the Netherlands.

They sprang to mind, but if I recall, by the late 17th century they were in pretty dire straights. My TL doesn't have the Dutch Republic, but rather the Burgundian inheritance united under a Habsburg line with it's capital Brussels. So I think we'd still see commerce shift north. The big issue is wealthy Flemings would want to finance adventurers in the Eastern Med....
 
Emelioz Brothers (aka "The Twins")

Frederico Umberto and Spinoza Ezekiel Emelioz ran things north of Madrid that sank Venice a little lower. Banked it all on certain minerals. Low tides, high tides.
 
As you said the shifting of trade routes in the East and the discovery of the America's was fatal for Venice and a large part of the reason why it was so damaging was Venice was a bit like Detroit, a one industry town. It absolutely dominated trade between Christian Europe and the East, while the Genoese and others were involved they were orders of magnitude behind. After the Ottomans conquests and Columbus Venice, like Detroit kept on doing what it was good at, failed to diversify and went into relative decline.

If you need someone other than Genoa or the Dutch to provide a loan I would suggest the Florentines.
 

Vitruvius

Donor
I think the other problem with Venice is that the patriciate converted into a kind of landed gentry around the same time that the Mediterranean trade routes dried up, or really because those trade routes dried up. The late 15th century conquest of the Terra Firma provided Venice land that Genoa lacked. Hence you see the Patrician families beginning to construct their Palladian villas in the early 16th century and lord over agricultural estates rather than continue in any kind of active commercial activity, certainly not on an international scale.

As for Ragusa it did maintain a decent trade network thanks to its ability to trade with the Ottomans thanks to its client status. But I don't think it really did too much in the way of banking. For whatever reason most of its merchants let Italian bankers in Rome Genoa and Florence handle its banking. After the 1667 earthquake the city liquidated proportionally massive holdings invested mostly in Rome to repatriate capital to rebuild the city. So I know at least by the 17th century Ragusa was mostly invested abroad.
 
By the 16th Cent. the Financial center of gravity had decisively shifted outside of Venice & Italy, as others here have suggested. Besides N. Europe, banking houses were springing up in Spain, Central Europe (Fuggers of Augsburg), & elsewhere. I can't think of a single significant Venetian banking house by this late in the game. The Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the oldest surviving bank in the world(since 1472), might be a plausible substitute. Although mostly their activities were in Tuscany.
 
By the 16th Cent. the Financial center of gravity had decisively shifted outside of Venice & Italy, as others here have suggested. Besides N. Europe, banking houses were springing up in Spain, Central Europe (Fuggers of Augsburg), & elsewhere. I can't think of a single significant Venetian banking house by this late in the game. The Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the oldest surviving bank in the world(since 1472), might be a plausible substitute. Although mostly their activities were in Tuscany.

I think that's a slight exaggeration, until the very end of the 16th century when the Low Countries overtook it Northern Italy had Europe's most sophisticated and advanced financial structure. It's just they had ceased to be the only player in the game. In fact there are some pretty big similarities between the "decline" of Italian banking and Britain's industrial "decline" post 1800. Northern Italy got first mover advantage and for a very long time that kept them ahead of the pack but inevitably the torch passed on. I do agree with you that if you don't want Florence or Genoa to be your banker Siena is probably the next best option.
 
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