Istituzioni religioso-assistenziali e attività di credito tra redistribuzione e modernizzazione nella Milano sette-ottocentesca

In Milan, the world of informal, not institutionalized, credit, populated by nobles, bourgeois, merchants, but above all by ecclesiastical bodies and welfare agencies (which we can define as the dark matter of the credit universe), unravels a steady acceleration starting from the final decades from the 18th century; the money coming from the redemption of public debt puts into the hands of thousands of underwriters capital that is invested to vivify a thriving economy. Notaries are the backbone of this world and stand out as reliable and efficient centers for the circulation of information between supply and demand for credit, lowering the transaction costs of this peer-to-peer market. In 1840, when almost a fifth of the families of the city made use of a notarial loan, a third of the total credit volume was disbursed by religious and welfare agencies. The competition from the lively lending activity that these institutions carried out for heterogenesis of purpose – by putting back into circulation the capital that, over time, the community had given them and bestowed to carry out social functions – certainly made it difficult “to institutionalize” credit, not letting to the creation of modern banks sufficient market space.