the world of private banking
the world of private banking
the world of private banking
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PROtEStANt bANKING 235<br />
loan <strong>of</strong> 10,000 écus at Lyons to <strong>the</strong> representatives <strong>of</strong> King Henry <strong>of</strong> Navarre, <strong>the</strong>y<br />
stipulated Frankfurt as <strong>the</strong> place for all payments <strong>of</strong> interest and reimbursement.<br />
In 1590–2 <strong>the</strong> sums <strong>of</strong> money recently collected in England were transferred by<br />
letter <strong>of</strong> exchange directly or via Hamburg from London to Frankfurt and <strong>the</strong>n<br />
mostly by Genevan merchants home to <strong>the</strong>ir Republic. Now it was a Mr Castel<br />
who arranged this business in London. Then <strong>the</strong> money was managed at Frankfurt<br />
by <strong>the</strong> Calvinist pastor Canon. Over <strong>the</strong> year, Genevan merchants and publishers<br />
came to all <strong>the</strong> four fairs at Frankfurt, which were very important international<br />
book markets. There we several times meet Louis Maupon, Jean Lepreux, Jean<br />
Dupan, Jacques Delacort, Pierre Patru, Jean and Julien Péaget. Finally, <strong>the</strong> sums<br />
collected in <strong>the</strong> Protestant Low Countries were sent in 1594 by letter <strong>of</strong> change<br />
from Amsterdam to Frankfurt and taken over from <strong>the</strong>re by <strong>the</strong> above mentioned<br />
Genevan trustees.<br />
At <strong>the</strong> beginning <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> seventeenth century King Henry IV transferred from<br />
Paris via Lyons <strong>the</strong> considerable sums he designated as support for <strong>the</strong> financially<br />
weak Republic <strong>of</strong> Geneva. All this royal money and o<strong>the</strong>r sums from <strong>private</strong><br />
intermediaries came to Geneva mainly via letters <strong>of</strong> exchange on Lyons. Some <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> letters also came directly from Paris. Ano<strong>the</strong>r sum collected by Jean Anjorrant<br />
in England did not travel via Frankfurt to get to Geneva but through Lyons. In<br />
1603–5 about 42,000 écus arrived by letter <strong>of</strong> exchange in <strong>the</strong>se two ways from<br />
London and Paris at Geneva.<br />
All <strong>the</strong>se facts known about Protestant financial activities during <strong>the</strong> sixteenth<br />
century bring us to a first or intermediate conclusion. The foundation <strong>of</strong> Protestant<br />
<strong>banking</strong> was first <strong>the</strong> result <strong>of</strong> ordinary economic activities <strong>of</strong> merchants and<br />
merchant bankers passing from <strong>the</strong> Catholic to <strong>the</strong> Protestant confession. Protestant<br />
solidarity began in Switzerland among <strong>the</strong> towns <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Reformation and Calvin’s<br />
Geneva and continued between European Protestants and <strong>the</strong> Calvinist party<br />
in France, especially with King Henry <strong>of</strong> Navarre. Protestant <strong>banking</strong> became<br />
internationally visible in history through all kinds <strong>of</strong> financial and political activities<br />
during <strong>the</strong> French civil and religious wars. It appears that toge<strong>the</strong>r with England,<br />
<strong>the</strong> Elector Palatine and <strong>the</strong> Duke <strong>of</strong> Württemberg, Swiss Protestants became <strong>the</strong><br />
main foreign financial supporters <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> French Protestant party. Capital transfers<br />
were brought about in different ways: by real monetary transports, by letters <strong>of</strong><br />
exchange, by cédules obligatoires. It was possible to use <strong>the</strong> last two techniques<br />
mentioned because <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> existence <strong>of</strong> a new international payment network<br />
especially among Protestant merchants and merchant bankers existing beside<br />
<strong>the</strong> traditional one concentrated on Antwerp. Of course, <strong>the</strong> existing traditional<br />
network for international payments at 1575–80 had a ra<strong>the</strong>r different geographical<br />
<br />
According to empirical data found in <strong>the</strong> accounts <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Republic <strong>of</strong> Geneva <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. See Körner, Solidarités, pp. 368–76. This mainly<br />
Protestant payment network was also used during <strong>the</strong> seventeenth century by Swiss Catholic<br />
merchants and military entrepreneurs in France. See H. Steffen, Die Kompanien Kaspar Jodok<br />
Stockalpers: Beispiel eines Soldunternehmers im 17. Jahrhundert (Brig, 1975), pp. 219–21.