马可·波罗（Marco Polo）和圣乔治（St. George）银行- Mariners' Blog

意大利卡莫格利（Camogli）与利古里亚海岸的大教堂迪·圣玛丽亚·阿森塔（Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta）。（QW 114）

我最有趣的研究项目始于很小的事情，这使我走上了我从未想到的道路。这是一个美丽的水彩画，展示了意大利的卡莫格利，里面有教堂和后面的城堡的一部分。那是一个快速的研究项目：获取特色结构的历史和水体的名称。然后，我查看了艺术家的历史，这是所有这些都分为几天研究的地方。

The debris cloud after the Halifax Explosion, when a munitions ship collided with another and they created the largest man-made explosion up to that time. Image from Laura MacDonald’s book,*Curse of the Narrows*。（TMMP库，F1039.5.H2 M23 2005）

这位艺术家是海军上将伯特拉姆·莫达特·钱伯斯（Bertram Mordaunt Chambers），他是英国海军官员，在1917年12月6日爆炸期间，他是哈利法克斯港的主要港口车队官员。他的官方报道说，他用大玻璃窗户吃早餐，俯瞰着港口，然后离开房间后五分钟，玻璃破碎成很小的碎片，撕毁了座位后面的木制品。他是一个幸运的人！

Admiral Chambers, before his promotion to captain. Image from his book,*Salt Junk: Naval Remembrances, 1881-1906*，他用水彩画绘画说明了这一点。（TMMP库。DA88.1 .C44）

After his retirement from the British Navy, Admiral Chambers became an agent for The Mariners’ Museum and Park, purchasing许多不同的对象for our collection, including the twolarge white figureheads在大厅里。In 1937 Admiral Chambers wound up in Italy on a buying trip, and his letters state that he was unable to find objects at an agreeable price, so he painted his own. How lucky are we to have had such talented agents?! We have six watercolor paintings from him, three of Camogli and three of Genoa.

热那亚, Italy with the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta di Carignano on the hill, and directly below the basilica is the building of the former Bank of St. George with a peaked roofline. (QW 136)

One painting in particular was very intriguing. On the painting Admiral Chambers wrote, “Bank of St. George, Genoa, founded 1346. Residence of Marco Polo.” I love going to historic sites, so my first thought was how cool would it be to visit Marco Polo’s house. An old bank though? Surely Genoa has all kinds of other significant sites that are much more fascinating. Turns out, I was wrong.

我进行了快速搜索，在热那亚找不到房子。我发现了18世纪克里斯托弗·哥伦布（Christopher Columbus）的房子的重建，但没有对马可·波罗（Marco Polo）进行重建。我的第一个大谜团：世界海军上将在世界上写了什么？我决定我应该查找马球的历史：他什么时候在热那亚？马球与父亲和叔叔从1271年开始访问库布莱·汗（Kublai Khan）开始冒险。马球成为可汗的大使，花了17年的时间前往各种Asian countries and reporting back about their cultures. He returned to his home in Venice (not Genoa) around 1295 after being gone for 24 years.

Marco Polo with his father and uncle in 1271. Image from Michael Yamashita’s book,*Marco Polo：摄影师的旅程*。(TMMP Library, G 370 .P72 Y36 2002)

1298年，Polo参加了苦涩的竞争对手威尼斯和热那亚之间的库尔佐拉战役，那该热那亚人抓获了他，据报道，在1257年至1260年之间建造了Polo Prinase，并在公共宫殿转变为中期。给另一名囚犯Rustichello da Pisa的故事，他在一本书中出版了他们il mirione。Thus Polo became famous.

Fun fact: the palace-turned-prison eventually became the judicial offices for the port, then it became the home of the Bank of St. George!卡伯斯海军上将不是在谈论两座不同的建筑物，他在谈论一座建筑！一旦我意识到这一点，就很明显了。但是，“在1346年建立”的日期是什么？我的第二个大谜。

热那亚的视图，大约1575- 1625年。圣乔治银行已经有150多年的历史了！（LE 1082）

根据朱塞佩·费洛尼（Giuseppe Felloni）的说法，他花了几十年的时间进行编目和研究圣乔治银行的档案并出版了热那亚and the History of Finance: A Series of FIRSTS?在2004年（您可以阅读这本书这里)，该银行于1407年正式成立，并于1408年3月2日开业。第一届会议的文件已广泛发布。但是，Chambers参考文献具有其历史的1346年日期。

The 1822 book英格兰银行的历史和物体的一般看法by John McKay refers to the Bank of St. George being founded in 1346 on page 90. By the 1840s and into the 1860s many books reprinted Joseph Addison’s 1701 description of the Bank of St. George, but then add the 1346 date as a footnote.

This date most likely refers to one of several mergers of the compere, or a type of state debt. Comperas were loans to the state of Genoa, which provided the loaners certain rights to control the city’s revenue sources to create a return on their investment. In his book,股本资本：从古老的合作伙伴关系到现代交易交易基金，杰弗里·波伊特拉斯（Geoffrey Poitras）将肖特拉斯描述为“企业品格的早期意大利资本协会”。

亨利·哈里斯（Henry Harrisse）1888年的书，Christopher Columbus and the Bank of St. George, describes several of these compere mergers on pages 53-54, specifically a merger of 27 comperas in 1346. These mergers eventually led to the creation of the Bank of St. George in 1407. However, Felloni’s research in chapter three of his book states that the mergers took place in 1303, 1332, 1340, 1368, 1381, and 1395.

我最好的猜测是，1800年代初的某人试图找到银行的历史，找到了一些有关合并的信息，并以1346年的日期从1407年最终形成到圣乔治银行的1346年日期。随着时间的流逝，该日期已经发表了很多次，以至于它被卡住了。

大约1770年的热那亚的景色，在镇上有标记的地点。圣乔治银行是97。（LE 365）

But why might someone in the early 1800s want to research the history of an old bank? Because that’s when the bank closed, nearly400年after it opened! Napoleon invaded Italy in 1805 and put an end to the Bank of St. George.

A close up of Genoa, circa 1770, with the Bank of St. George marked. The bank was more than 360 years old by now! (LE 365)

Felloni details the legacy of the bank in his book, writing that from 1408 the Genoese began considering new methods of banking. They were the first innovators of public debt, government bonds, sinking funds, double entry and public accountancy, and eight other economic practices that are common today. You can read the updated 2017 edition of Felloni’s book这里。Felloni has made it his mission to update the economic histories that give the credit for these innovations to the Bank of England, or discuss Genoa’s role in the economic history but either mention the bank in passing or not at all.