the world of private banking

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THE WORLD OF PRIVAtE BANKING
at Basel and Zurich as we know from the publications of Walter Bodmer, Herbert
Lüthy, Hans-Conrad Peyer, Jean-François Bergier and Liliane Mottu-Weber.
Now, as regards the international transfers, we do not know if the merchants
and bankers who acted as a relay station on the way to Geneva were actually
all Protestants. But our research has clarified how the money went through. For
instance, in 1582 Jean Mallet of Geneva was able to collect about 5,730 Pounds
Sterling in England. Since the exportation of real coins from England to the
continent was not allowed, he entrusted the money to a merchant in London, John
Bodley, who continued to cash further sums collected after Jean Mallet’s departure.
Bodley credited the money to the accounts of his clients Guillaume Collabaud and
Raymond de Not at Lyons. Then these two merchants credited the money to Horace
Micheli, who was a rich Genevan silk manufacturer with excellent connections in
Lyons. Finally, a number of other merchants from Lyons, Geneva, Switzerland
and Germany helped to transfer the money from Lyons to Geneva. These transfers
were brought about in two ways: passing through Geneva, one of these merchants
would pay a certain amount of money to the Public Treasurer and get a letter of
exchange on Horace Micheli at Lyons, or receive a short-term loan from Horace
Micheli at Lyons to pay the merchants at Lyons against cédules obligatoires which
became payable a few days later at Geneva. In 1583–4, the Republic of Geneva
received about 18,000 écus which were transferred in this way from Lyons.
Duke Casimir, the Count Palatine, in 1585 reimbursed a loan of 2,000 écus
he had received two years before from the Republic of Geneva. This money
was transferred by a letter of exchange sent by Paulus Formberg, Hans Bosch
& Co from Nuremberg to Geneva but drawn on the Genevan merchant Gabriel
Rinstevand at Frankfurt. A lot of other smaller and larger sums were transferred to
Geneva during the following years by letters of exchange or cédules obligatoires
from Frankfurt, Strasbourg, Basle, St Gallen and Lyons. In 1589–96 about 22,000
écus arrived in this way for the public treasury of the Genevan Republic. During
these years we notice the following merchants or merchant-bankers engaged in
these transfers: Joseph Fosses, Janneto Motta, Jacob Gradelle, Julien Péaget, Jean
Jaillet, Jean Dupré, David Deroche, Mr Calandrin, Jean Combe, Jean and Thibaud
Morlot at Geneva, Anton Legalio and Jeromino Mieg at Basel, and Hans Piguel
at Strasbourg.
After 1590 Frankfurt became more and more important as a turning point for
Genevan capital transfers. When a group of merchants of St. Gallen gave out a
W. Bodmer, Der Einfluss der Refugianteneinwanderung von 1550–1700 auf die
schweizerische Wirtschaft: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Frühkapitalismus und der
Textilindustrie (Zurich, 1946); H. Lüthy, La Banque Protestante en France de la Révocation
de l’Édit de Nantes à la Révolution, 2 vols (Paris, 1959–1961); H.C. Peyer, Von Handel
und Bank im alten Zürich (Zurich, 1968); Bergier, Wirtschaftsgeschichte; L. Mottu-Weber,
‘Vie économique et refuge à Genève à la fin du XVIIe siècle’, in Genève au temps de la
Révocation de l’édit de Nantes 1680–1705 (Geneva, 1985); L. Mottu-Weber, Genève au
siècle de la Réforme: Economie et refuge (Geneva Paris, 1987).