Florence at Venice. A Strozzi Company in Early Modern Venice

This contribution offers a case study related to one of the most important Florentine companies in Venice in the late sixteenth century. The several companies of this Strozzi branch in Venice were directed by Roberto di Camillo Strozzi, who issued companies also under his own name. As the Florentine commercial practice recalled, the Strozzi enterprises were “trading and banking” firms: the backbone of their activity remained the sale and the purchase of goods, but the backing offered by the participation the Strozzi family had in private banks in Florence gave the possibility of providing financial services (mainly through a widespread short-term instrument, the bill of exchange) to other firms in Venice. Financial activities indeed became increasingly more important for Strozzi companies in Venice, and when Roberto died in September 1615 they formed his main interest. After the death of Roberto, the companies were renewed under the management of his young nephew Carlo di Alessandro Strozzi, who let the business fail in 1622. The Strozzi companies disappeared from the Venetian scene after a failed agreement with the creditors and a sentence of banishment.