"Una fiera senza luogo". Was Bisenzone An International Capital Market in Sixteenth Century Italy?

This paper discusses how Genoese bankers collected money at the Bisenzone exchange fairs. From the mid-sixteenth to the early seventeenth centuries this money was then lent to the king of Spain through asientos. The Genoese funded long-term obligations with the king by means of short term loans, which meant they provided the liquidity he needed, and at the same time successfully managed the supply of finance from a large number of sources, so reducing the risks of lending. The Bisenzone exchange fairs provided a market in which it was possible to conduct arbitrage between the Northern Italian financial markets, and set up a network that operated as an efficient capital market under Genoese control. The success of the Bisenzone exchange fairs directly challenges the theory that the laws against usury braked the development of capital markets in early modern Italy.