- Florence, Italy.
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was an independent state that existed from 1569 to 1859, first under the Medici and then the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty. During this period the Grand Duchy of Tuscany managed to maintain its independence and to develop into one of the most prosperous and modern states in Europe.
The Florentine Mountains
These documents are very rare and are printed and handwritten on parchment with splendid engravings which usually represented the coats of arms of the rulers of the time. The mountains date back to medieval pawnshops. From the 16th century, funds were procured by receiving cash deposits from citizens upon the issue of nominative credit certificates called Places (a term that indicates shares of capital). With the progressive evolution of the banking system, the Monti became real credit institutions, some of which still exist today. The value of the places was always high: generally in the Florentine mountains their unit value was 100 scudi, a respectable amount for the time and certainly beyond the reach of the small saver. So to make the investment accessible to all, the placement of portions of the place was also permitted, provided that they were not less than a quarter (equal to 25 scudi).
Places were defined as "vacable" if non-repayable or extinguishable with the death of the montista (in this case they represented pure life annuity certificates), or "non-vacant" if redeemable (in this case they assumed the quality of securities representing capital, transmissible and lasting). These certificates of deposit can be considered the oldest Italian bank documents.
