Signs of economic development in the Kingdom of Naples under the Aragonese Crown: the Coppola Company

Abstract

This article aims to explore the involvement of Loise and Francesco Coppola’s company under the Aragonese crown in the later fifteenth century, by analysing the socio-economic situation of Southern Italy and considering how local entrepreneurship was influenced by foreign merchant-banking companies. An analysis will be carried out based on accounting entries made by Florentine bankers Filippo and Lorenzo Strozzi, who established a bank in Naples in the second half of the fifteenth century. Evidence of their lending business is provided by two general journals from 1473 and 1476 and now held at the State Archives of Florence, in the Fifth Series of the Carte Strozziane.¹ As the bookkeeper of the Strozzi Bank used to record any transaction using double-entry bookkeeping,² such journals help to identify the types of clients the Strozzi Bank dealt with and the reason for any transaction carried out.³

In order to examine these sources, reference should be made to both Federigo Melis’s research on Francesco di Marco Datini’s company in Prato and Raymond de Roover’s investigation of the Medici Bank in Florence.⁴ By analysing bookkeeping data, techniques and tools, Melis and de Roover have explored the management and activities of the merchant-banking companies that became instrumental in the rise of merchant and financial capitalism in the late middle ages.⁵ The activity of such companies was inevitably interconnected with the development of European monarchies, urban societies, the power of feudal lords and the interests of anybody dealing with the world of finance. This was a world in which a significant role was played by merchants and large banking groups – privileged interlocutors of the Crown of Aragon in Naples, who relied on them to settle the Crown’s debts, cover the expenses of the court and the bureaucratic-administrative apparatus, fund military campaigns and initiatives aimed at strengthening its leadership. Besides taking care of the needs and interests of the Crown, merchants and bankers also dealt with feudal lords, who turned to banks to support their luxurious lifestyle and – increasingly often – even invest in the production of raw materials to put on the market, the purchase of machinery and the building of manufacturing plants. It is within this context that local small and medium-sized businesses also operated. These included artisans, farmers, people working in the transport field, patroni (ship owners), merchants, speculators and moneylenders whose microlending business contributed to the development of a country that, under the Aragonese – as underlined by Irma Schiappoli – ‘riacquistò dignità e splendore’ (regained its dignity and splendour)⁶.

One of the accounts held at the Strozzi Bank belonged to the father and son company, Loise and Francesco Coppola. In this article, an analysis will be conducted of the transactions carried out on their behalf in 1473 and 1476, the only two years documented by the journals. In the period in question, the Coppola Company succeeded in climbing the social ladder and were the protagonists of major financial initiatives whose outcome exceeded the expectations of even the most ambitious merchants. Ultimately, Francesco,⁷ the son of Loise, was entrusted with carrying out prestigious tasks on behalf of the crown, granted fiefs, honoured with titles and ennobled to the point of being able to marry into the royal family.

Francesco Coppola was born in Naples in the 1430/1440s,⁸ although his family originated from Scala, a small town located on the Amalfi Coast. Besides being skilled merchants, the Coppolas owed their socio-economic success to the business of public procurement, which became their main source of profit, with contracts being awarded to their company in exchange for loans to the crown. As contractors, they played a key role in the fiscal and financial administration of the kingdom, working constantly and closely with the king. As it was rare for foreign companies to work in this economic sector, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it had already provided the most resourceful and skilled local entrepreneurs with great opportunities for profit and social climbing.⁹

In the mid 1400s it was Apulia that offered the Coppolas economic advantages and occasions for success. The most propitious time coincided with the end of the Principality of Taranto, which was united to the Kingdom of Naples after Prince Giovanni Antonio Orsini del Balzo’s death in 1463.¹⁰ In that period, Francesco Coppola’s father Loise, who was close to King Alfonso of Aragon, was entrusted with institutional responsibilities: he was appointed regio secreto, the royal official responsible for collecting indirect taxes, and mastro portolano, keeper of the ports, of the Terra d’Otranto and Basilicata, and regio secreto of the Capitanata and the Terra di Bari.¹¹

Being appointed mastro portolano would have allowed Loise to increase his earnings, as Amedeo Feniello has pointed out after analysing a ledger from 1471–2, now held at the State Archives of Naples.¹² A mastro portolano’s earnings came from significatorie debt collection, factoring; export duties on wheat and other products; custom duties at the ports of Taranto, Otranto and Brindisi; the bagliva tax on scales; the sale of salt; and the profits from complex economic transactions.

However, a significant part of Loise’s annual turnover of 23,000 to 24,000 ducats¹³ came from the profits he made as the owner of a merchant company that, having gained the trust and protection of the king, regularly worked in direct partnership with the Crown. The different nature of the activities and transactions carried out shows how the relationship between the king and the merchant developed on two different levels: a public context in which Loise performed bureaucratic-administrative tasks on behalf of the ‘state’, due to his being entrusted with important responsibilities, and a partially public context in which he did business with the Crown as a private investor and financier. In other words, the astute entrepreneur built his fortune and that of his heirs on the complementarity of his two roles, him being both a public official and a merchant.

It should also be noted that, in the Kingdom of Naples, as in all feudal monarchies, being a successful businessman necessarily required a different modus operandi compared to the context of communal Italy. It meant, first and foremost, placing oneself at the service of the Crown and accumulating fame and fortune with the ultimate goal of obtaining ennoblement. The Gondi family did it in France, as did almost all the Pisan bankers who had chosen to move to Sicily.¹⁴

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Loise managed to accumulate more than 100 ducats through his activities, which became the initial capital to invest in further successful projects, in collaboration with his sons Francesco and Matteo, including the foundation of the Arte della Lana wool guild.¹⁵ The Strozzi Bank journals provide an insight into the economic and financial activities in which the Coppolas were involved as the owners of a single bank account. While carrying out their trading, speculative and manufacturing activity, which stimulated the economy of the whole kingdom, they found an ally and supporter in King Ferrante. As the Crown aimed at boosting the domestic market, the creation of local companies was seen as instrumental in limiting the enormous power of non-local and foreign entrepreneurs, so as to reduce imports and encourage local manufacturing.¹⁶ However, the pursuit of this economic policy implied the involvement of multiple subjects that even included foreign entrepreneurs such as important bankers, since any subject was entrusted with carrying out specific tasks on behalf of the ‘State’. Therefore, on the one hand, the crown turned to the Florentine Strozzi Bank, which already provided treasury services and liquidity for public bodies, in order to cover current expenditure, emergency expenses and the costs of specific projects. On the other hand, a successful local company such as that managed by the Coppolas was helpful to deal with the practical aspects connected with the organization, logistics and management of a Neapolitan factory for the manufacturing of textiles.¹⁷ When the financial resources provided by the international Strozzi group combined with the entrepreneurial skills of local Coppolas, the Arte della Lana was founded in Southern Italy, followed by the Arte della Seta silk guild in 1474. This was the result of a complex business project conceived by King Ferrante so as to allow his subjects not to exclusively rely on foreign manufacturing.¹⁸ The numerous banking transactions carried out by the Coppolas at the Strozzi Bank confirm that the business partners shared a common purpose. More specifically, 739¹⁹ transactions were made in 1473 and 247 in 1476, a combined total of 986 transactions. No other local, non-local or foreign merchant company, including those that used to work in partnership with the Strozzi Bank – Di Penne, Di Gaeta & Palmieri, the Medici, Spannocchi & Company, and Strina – could compare, as they carried out an average of 100 to 300 financial transactions annually.²⁰ Far from being exclusively focused on banking transactions, the privileged partnership between the Strozzi and the Coppolas enabled them to implement a series of trading and entrepreneurial projects.

Loise and Francesco turned to the Strozzi Bank when they were founding the Arte della Lana, as it is shown by the descriptions of 354 transactions made in 1473, a number that drastically decreased in 1476, with only five transactions making explicit reference to the production of wool and three to that of silk cloth. This comparison demonstrates that 1473 was a decisive year for the launch of such an important business, which required continuous financing and even the support of the Crown. Whenever the intervention of the king was necessary, the sovereign issued a document called albarano,²¹ by which the king acted as a guarantor once a loan had been granted by a bank or any other creditor. The albarano indicated the deadline by which the king needed to settle the debt, which could also be sold to a third party.²² This confirms that the Strozzi Bank used to allow overdrafts, especially when its most eminent clients were involved, such as members of the court and skilled entrepreneurs like the Coppolas. Compared to the transactions made in 1473, those that the Coppolas carried out in 1476 show a wider range of interests and investment sectors, including insurance, foreign currency exchange services and shipbuilding, which complemented the already successful Arte della Lana.

In 1474 King Ferrante, in co-operation with Loise and Francesco Coppola, started fostering the foundation of a silk guild in Naples. However, the silk industry soon took advantage also of the contribution of non-local entrepreneurs, including the skilled Genoese Pietro Cavursi (who provided technical advice), Florentine Francesco di Nerone and Venetian Marino da Ca’ da Ponte, who entered into a partnership with the Coppolas.²³ This would prove to be an invaluable opportunity for growth and development for Naples, with the capital playing an increasingly important role in the economy of the kingdom. Similarly, it would enable the Coppolas to reach the peak of their success.

In 1475 King Ferrante allowed the Coppolas to use the gold and lead mines located in Calabria to their own advantage.²⁴ Three years later, they started one or more soaperies in Naples.²⁵ In 1481 Francesco Coppola was given permission to mine and sell the alum from the mines in Ischia, while being granted rights and given exemptions that contributed to increasing his earnings.²⁶ Supported by the king, he opened a paper mill in Sarno that began to supply royal offices.²⁷ When the Ottoman empire invaded Otranto in 1480–1, he provided King Ferrante with huge financial resources and a large fleet.²⁸ The king, in turn, never failed to support the Coppolas whenever they needed help.

The costs for the Arte della Lana, as well as those incurred to finance other activities – better recorded in the accounts of 1476 – were contributed also by the Strozzi’s partner banks, which credited money through promesse (promises) and abbuoni (vouchers). The tables below show the data gathered by Amedeo Feniello²⁹ and those derived from the 1476 journal (Tables 1 and 2).

The Strozzi books help to identify at least four different items of expenditure related to the textile business, namely the purchase of raw materials (wool) and machinery, the purchase and transport of various materials, the recruitment and payment of skilled workers, and operating costs (Table 3). Such transactions were made by the Coppolas either directly or through their trusted representatives and associates, including Giovanni Tramontano, Florentine Alamanno di Lazzaro, notaries Giovanni Bozzavotra and Giovanni di Santangelo (Table 4).

Only notary Andrea di Cioffo³¹ is mentioned in both journals. A comparison between 1473 and 1476 shows significant differences in terms of projects and needs, which translated into a reduction in the loans requested for the textile business in 1476. Conversely, in 1473 the setting up of the manufacturing business had led the Coppolas to make a series of purchases to guarantee the supply of wool, but also the availability of suitable spaces and facilities, machinery and equipment – the tiratoio apparatus to dry the cloth, wells, boards for fulling, copper and pewter boilers, reeds, schardassi wool-carding brushes, beaters, and any other tool to spin and beat the wool.³² Different pieces of cloth were bought from important companies based in Tuscany³³ or abroad, with the foreign wool market being dominated by English and Flemish businesses,³⁴ while silk was mainly purchased in Venice.³⁵ As the journals show, dye plants, such as woad and common madder, were also frequently purchased from companies based in Liguria, Umbria and Marche.³⁶ When it came to recruiting workers, a lack of local skilled workforce led the Coppolas to turn to foreigners. Textile workers mainly came from Tuscany, Umbria, Milan and Bergamo, although some local people were also part of their workforce.³⁷

In 1476 the number of financial transactions concerning the Arte della Lana significantly dropped, which confirms that the greatest expenses necessary to start the business had already been incurred. In this second phase of production, the Coppolas were assisted by the well-known Florentine entrepreneur Francesco di Nerone, who, besides having a prominent role in the Arte della Lana and being even occasionally entrusted with withdrawing money, managed a shop of the Arte della Seta on behalf of the Coppolas, as it can be deduced from a bank transaction made on 29 May 1476.³⁸

The analysis carried out above shows that the Arte della Lana and the Arte della Seta should be considered a complex and heterogeneous company-system that synergistically combined resources, workers and competences, aggregating different perspectives and the components of an extremely composite social reality that had the king at the top, who then encouraged the creation of the guilds.³⁹ Reporting directly to the king, the two main representatives of the royal government, royal tax collector Pascasio Diaz Garlon and royal treasurer Pere Bernat, made financial resources available to the Arte on multiple occasions. Similarly, the Strozzi dealt with financial matters on behalf of the king, while the Coppolas took care of practical and organizational aspects, having established a privileged form of co-operation with King Ferrante. The money in the Coppolas’ bank account came from deposits made by the Strozzi Bank, its partner banks and other financial entities. On a different level, a number of individuals also revolved around the Coppolas, who managed their activities with the help of trusted business partners, technicians, carriers and skilled and unskilled workers, who all contributed to the success of the production process. Such a complex system was the basis of what had become the king’s trading and manufacturing company, since the Coppola group shared its profits with the Crown.⁴⁰

The already influential position that Francesco had in society was strengthened between the late 1470s and the early 1480s. As had already happened with his father, he was entrusted with important tasks, becoming mastro portolano of Apulia and Terra di Lavoro, captain and governor for life of Ischia, governor, castellan and captain of Castellammare di Stabia, mastro portolano of the kingdom, and grand admiral. The crowning achievement of his successful political and business career was being appointed Count of Sarno in 1483, which resulted in him becoming a member of the nobility. Consequently, he started identifying with the aristocracy, sharing their tensions, ambitions and objectives, even the most subversive ones that led the Coppolas to participate in the Conspiracy of the Barons in 1485.⁴¹ However, the business partnership between the Coppolas and the Crown, which had lasted about a decade, came to an end even before Francesco and his heirs Marco and Filippo were tragically beheaded on 11 May 1487.⁴² The reason for the end of such a business collaboration remains unclear, although it may be assumed that Francesco’s great ambition and the fortune he had accumulated as a powerful merchant, high-ranking official, influential ship owner and clever businessman, ended up damaging the relationship of trust between the king and the merchant, who had become unpopular and unwelcome at court.⁴³

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The Coppolas invested their energy and resources also in the grain market, exporting Apulian wheat mainly to Venice, where their business partners Pierfrancesco and Giovanni Medici were based.⁴⁴ Unlike the project that had led to the foundation of the Arte della Lana, this did not involve the Crown, but was implemented in collaboration with Florentine bankers Filippo and Lorenzo Strozzi.⁴⁵ Due to their having sufficient liquidity to purchase goods, the Florentine members of the partnership – the Medici and the Strozzi – mainly cornered the wheat market and took care of economic and financial aspects, whereas local entrepreneurs – the Coppolas – provided logistics where the goods were produced and dealt with suppliers.

Despite being entrusted with different tasks, the partners equally shared costs and profits, as it can be deduced from the notes taken by the Strozzi in their Ricordanze (Register 29)⁴⁶ and the entries in the 1476 journal. Both documents show that financial transactions were made on 28 May of that year between the Strozzi and the Coppolas so as to settle accounts.⁴⁷ In order for the deal to be closed, the Strozzi Bank deposited 1,300 ducats into a separate account in the name of the Coppolas, an expedient that allowed them to balance the accounts after the companies had partnered to purchase large batches of wheat in Apulia, Terra di Lavoro and Calabria. Some of the goods were going to be sold wholesale on the Venetian market, some were going to be bartered for timber. Both commercial transactions required the involvement of the Venetian branch of the Medici Bank. Such a system of exchange, which used to be adopted by the trading companies of the time, allowed the Coppolas to avoid returning to Apulian ports with the holds of their ships empty. As the timber harvested from the forests in the Alps and any other product that met the demand of the southern market could contribute to amortizing the costs of the voyage to the south, the Coppolas could decide to barter a cargo of wheat with timber boards or purchase the latter through balancing.

Opening a separate account in the name of the Coppolas that differed from their general account, and that was probably going to be closed soon after the debts had been settled, allowed the Strozzi Bank to charge to the Coppolas any amounts they had loaned them based on their needs. It may be assumed that the Strozzi opened a separate bank account in the name of any client or partner who was granted a loan, recording the amount loaned, the recipient, the reason for the payment and the settlement of the debt.

The Strozzi had to equally share the costs incurred to corner the wheat market and any net profit with all their partners, although they were all entrusted with different tasks and sometimes needed to pay in advance the amount necessary to carry out specific tasks. Therefore, the Strozzi dealt with administrative and financial aspects, the Coppolas took care of economic, commercial and more practical issues, including the purchase and storage of the goods, while the Medici sold the products on foreign markets. Based on this tripartite system, the members of the partnership that operated in the kingdom had to mediate between suppliers and buyers, local producers and international businesses. They had to deal with farmers, negotiate the price of wheat or any other product, purchase the goods, load and stow the cargo. Such a complex process required the involvement of a number of workers that were co-ordinated by Matteo di Giorgio, the legal and sales representative of the Coppolas, who was helped by his sons Tommaso and Giovanbattista, and his nephew Carlo, whose job is confirmed by the descriptions of the transactions they made at the Strozzi Bank on behalf of Loise and Francesco.⁴⁸

Another interesting example of such an equal partnership between the Coppolas and the Strozzi concerns a trip to Tunis, half of whose costs were covered by Loise and Francesco on 6 May 1476 with a deposit to an account in the name of Andrea di Giovanni Strozzi, the patrono of the ship that was going to sail for Tunis, as a reimbursement for a payment that had already been made by the Strozzi Bank. The various expenses included the payment of 600 ducats to insure the ship.⁴⁹ Forty-three deposits whose description makes explicit reference to the wheat business were made to Loise and Francesco Coppola’s bank account in 1473, as the journal of that year shows. Another twenty-three similar deposits were made in 1476, thus confirming the profitable partnership between the Strozzi, the Coppolas and the Medici based in Venice.⁵⁰

By combining these (unpublished) bookkeeping data with those recorded by the mastro portolano of Manfredonia Bernardo de Anghono in a (published) journal dating back to 1486–7,⁵¹ the different stages of the (Apulian) grain chain can be explored, from local production and sale to international trading and financing to export networks (controlled in this case by the Medici). Local producers and sellers were mainly based in the hinterland of the modern province of Bari, in the towns of Laterza, Bitonto, Spinazzola and Castellaneta, but also in the area between Matera and the Metapontino coast. These were small business entrepreneurs who, in 1475, were able to put 436 carra (wagons) of wheat on the market, an impressive annual amount that allowed them to compete with larger farming businesses managed by wealthy families.⁵²

Although an analysis of the production levels of wheat in Apulia in the mid and late 1400s will not be carried out in this article,⁵³ it should be highlighted that great market demand was met thanks to the availability of multiple production systems. Thriving masseria farming businesses mainly located in the Dunia region were managed by the Crown, with Lucera being the most important business hub and Manfredonia the main export port for agricultural products.⁵⁴ Some farming businesses were managed by lay and ecclesiastical lords, while others were owned by religious orders, such as the Teutonic Order of San Leonardo di Siponto.⁵⁵ However, the Medici and Coppolas understood that even small businesses run by farmers⁵⁶ could help them to achieve their objectives. Differing from the economic and organizational system adopted in large masseria farms run by wealthy families, this smaller-scale approach to farming characterized numerous small businesses established in the late 1400s and becoming widespread in the Salento area in the early modern period, as Maria Antonietta Visceglia has argued. These growing small and medium-sized businesses were experiencing a parallel development to larger ones, with important trading companies increasingly turning to them to purchase wheat and barley. As trading companies aimed at selling larger and larger quantities of grains, there was an increase in the volume of production and the number of suppliers, with the latter going from wealthy landowners to small farmers.⁵⁷

Once the wheat was loaded on the ships headed to Venice, the responsibility for the cargo and the subsequent sales transactions was handed over to Pierfrancesco and Giuliano Medici, who took care of all the aspects related to maritime transport, including any insurance, customs duties and tolls in the Venetian Lagoon, ensuring the safety of the cargo until its sale. Lacking their own fleet, the Medici rented the ships that, once equipped and loaded with goods, sailed up the Adriatic Sea in order to reach Venice and later sail back to Apulian ports. They usually turned to foreign ship owners, mainly coming from Dalmatia, Ragusa (today’s Dubrovnik) and Montenegro, who took the cargo from the Peninsula to the Balkans, sometimes making even more than one voyage a day. On the other hand, the local owners of ships or smaller boats only provided cabotage services along the southern coasts. From Apulia, passing through Venice, wheat reached the most diverse destinations, from central and northern Italy to southern France, Flanders, England, the Iberian Peninsula, the Dalmatian coast, the Balkans, Constantinople, North Africa and the Eastern markets.

This confirms the important role played by the partnership between the Medici and the Coppolas, financially supported by the Strozzi banking group, in the economic and production system of Apulia and the whole of Southern Italy. It clearly shows the organizational and management skills of the great companies based in Florence and the kingdom, the effectiveness of their tools, and their contribution to the promotion of southern agricultural production in international markets.

However, their joint action translated into concrete results only thanks to the hard work of local intermediaries, manufacturers, suppliers and sellers, who started the first stages of a not-so-short supply chain that put southern wheat on international markets. In order for the negotiation process to succeed, it was necessary to co-ordinate and monitor any stage, from production to sales, follow the different purchasing, loading and land transport operations to reach the access to the sea, the storage and sale of the goods at the ports, and the voyage to the destination of the cargo. Each of these steps implied an agreement being reached between the parties involved and expenses being incurred. For this reason, the Medici, the Coppolas, and those who acted on their behalf to close deals or, better, to take care of any essential step, took advantage of the financial resources, tools and services provided by the Strozzi Bank. At any level, it was the large number of trusted associates working for the companies in question to mediate between the management centres and the places of production, between company owners and both large and smaller local producers of wheat, co-ordinating operations in Naples, the peripheral areas of the kingdom, and European markets.

The success of the Coppolas in the food industry was not limited to their grain trading business, as they, taking advantage of the services provided by the Strozzi Bank, bought and resold – by cornering the market – other consumer goods, such as oil, wine, cheese, beans and dates.⁵⁸ The Coppolas were able to meet market demand at a local and international level, establishing a fruitful collaboration with both suppliers, who guaranteed the provision of goods, and financiers, who had sufficient liquidity to allow them to purchase the goods. Furthermore, they managed to promote the resources of Southern Italy, while contributing to an increase in supply and the development of local economies. The Coppolas, at least up to the Conspiracy of the Barons, proved to be instrumental in the implementation of King Ferrante’s economic plan, which aimed at boosting the production and sales of local products, encouraging local entrepreneurship, and promoting local manufacturing, in order to improve the overall economy of the kingdom.

The Coppola Company was an excellent example of a local business that managed to grasp any opportunity offered by the Crown, even being able to ride the wave of success and extend its activities, combining trading with more entrepreneurial and industrial projects. The Coppolas’ interests coincided with those of skilled and astute Strozzi bankers, who never failed to financially support any project that could result in handsome profits. The trading and manufacturing projects started by the Coppolas translated into a tripartite collaboration involving the king and the Strozzi, which led them to interact with the world of international finance within the kingdom. The resulting capital mobility, increased investments, and involvement of local workers, producers, and agents contributed to boosting the southern economy and became an integral part of the ‘capitalist transformation’ that Southern Italy was also slowly beginning to experience at a socio-economic, cultural and political level.⁵⁹

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Brief mention should also be made of the other economic and industrial sectors in which the Coppola Company operated, as the journals demonstrate. The involvement of the Coppolas in the thriving insurance market is confirmed by two sicurtà insurance agreements they entered into with merchant Colagniolo Mormile in 1473⁶⁰ and the financial transactions made in 1476, when thirteen insurance contracts were signed in order to protect, among others, whaler Franzi Benet’s and Antonio d’Aviello’s cargo, Piscopo di Penna’s caravel, and Francesco Sardo’s ship headed to Pozzuoli.⁶¹

An insurance policy allowed one to receive compensation in the event of shipwreck – more likely to occur in winter months – pirate attacks, damage or loss of (part of) the cargo. The further the distance between the port of departure and the port of arrival, the more likely one was to incur losses, which made signing an insurance contract necessary, with the premium to be paid to the insurer increasing or decreasing based on specific variables and insurance risk.⁶² Precise information provided by skilful experts enabled the insurer to choose the best strategy and identify the right amount of money to invest in insurance policies. On the one hand, premium insurance policies covered the perils associated with sea travel, in line with an approach based on mutual solidarity that fostered long-distance commercial transactions. On the other hand, such a system provided a speculative opportunity for individuals and companies that were willing to make profits.⁶³

The Coppolas’ decision to be involved in the insurance business was connected with their dealing with the maritime sector. Maintaining and fitting out a ship with the necessary equipment for it to set sail were extremely costly, with further expenses being incurred in relation to the goods carried. As a result, before undertaking any kind of voyage, and especially a long one, the merchant companies involved entered into a sicurtà insurance contract or signed one with a financier.

As the journals show, while in 1473 no banking transactions were carried out in the shipbuilding sector and the weapons industry, a few years later a considerable number of requests for financing were made, with a turnover that demonstrated that the company was fully involved in this investment sector. In May 1476 Loise and Francesco Coppola were granted two loans of 300 ducats and about 159 ducats, respectively, in order for them to cover the expenses for the galley owned by young Matteo Coppola. In June of the same year, the Strozzi Bank credited further amounts to them for the equipment of the same ship. The ship made two important voyages over that summer, a longer one to Alexandria, for which it was insured for 1,500 ducats by Francesco Lomellino, and a shorter one from Palermo to the Calabrian coast, with an insurance policy of 400 ducats being signed with Pietropaolo Tommasi and Giovanni Arrigli’s company.⁶⁴

Such examples show how the Coppolas were starting to build their own arsenal and fleet, which would gradually grow and become invaluable in supporting the king’s military operations. Although little information is available about the shipyards owned by the Coppolas in those years, the fact that the Medici turned to them to rent ships at 200 ducats, together with the amount of the salary paid to two caulkers, makes it easy to understand that such a business was already successful and growing fast.

The various entrepreneurial projects undertaken by the Coppola group also included the currency exchange business. However, this did not involve the direct exchange of coins, but the negotiation of bills of exchange, which meant that the Coppolas had the opportunity to transfer money – through the Strozzi Bank – from one market to the other, taking advantage of exchange rates.⁶⁵ While in 1473 only two currency exchange transactions were made on behalf of Loise and Francesco Coppola, involving counterparties based in Venice and Gaeta, respectively,⁶⁶ the 1476 journal shows that these kinds of transactions later became more frequent, also due to the economic interests of the company and its partners growing and diversifying over the years. Nine currency exchange transactions were carried out with counterparties based in Florence, seven with counterparties based in Genoa, two with counterparties based in Venice, and one with counterparties based in London.⁶⁷ Interestingly, the Coppolas also purchased florins through the Florentine branch of the Strozzi Bank, with a variable interest rate of 10 to 11 per cent.⁶⁸

Although these are just some of the pieces of a much more complex puzzle, they contribute to providing a clearer picture of the crucial role played by the Coppola family in the development of the southern economy in the fifteenth century, showing how their company was part of international commercial networks that included the wealthiest and most powerful merchant-banking businesses of the time. Being able to go beyond the boundaries of the kingdom, the Coppolas skilfully operated in that Euro-Mediterranean space that was the global market of the time. This may have brought about a more radical change, more widespread and durable growth in Southern Italy if, following King Ferrante’s death in 1494, a series of dramatic events had not occurred that led to the decline of the Aragonese power and the end of the independence of the Kingdom of Naples, which became a peripheral area of the empire.

Footnotes