Social capital versus commercial profits: the impact of networks on decision-making in early modern banks

Matringe, Nadia ORCID: 0000-0001-5508-8810 (2016) Social capital versus commercial profits: the impact of networks on decision-making in early modern banks. In: Schönhärl, Korinna, (ed.) Decision Making, Confidence and Risk Management in Banks from Early Modernity to the 20th Century. Palgrave studies in the history of finance. Palgrave Macmillan, London, UK. ISBN 9783319420752

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Abstract

Historians and economists have generally emphasized the role of economic, political and institutional contexts (such as monetary trends, wars, forms of regulation etc.) in the shaping of early modern business strategies. It appears, however, that an important social factor is often neglected in such analyses: networks. Based on the records of a major sixteenth-century merchant-banking firm (the Salviati), this paper highlights the central role of networks in decision-making processes, by showing how networks impacted on the notion of profit driving the economic action of early modern banks. This is manifest at three levels, namely 1. shaping of the accounting system; 2. fixation of interest rates in deposit and exchange transactions; and 3. regulation of opportunistic behavior.

Item Type:	Book Section
Official URL:	https://www.palgrave.com/
Additional Information:	© 2017 The Editor
Divisions:	Accounting
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce H Social Sciences > HG Finance
Date Deposited:	08 Sep 2016 13:39
Last Modified:	15 Sep 2023 10:02
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/67649

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