Abstract

During the 16th and 17th Centuries the Genoese Bankers offered many financial services all around Europe at such high levels that no other competitor could be compared with them. Their success should be imputed to the organization of their commercial and holding companies. The financial services which were produced by these Genoese companies needed a large numbers of agents distributed in different European commercial towns. This paper describes the network of an important Genoese family - the Spinola - and the role played by two brothers, Gregorio and Bartolomeo. Apart from many different commercial activities, this family was involved in the financing of the Spanish Monarchy between 1610 and 1656. Their "networks" resulted an excellent mechanism to process and manage financial information. The company utilized two different "networks": the first one to obtain credit in Europe, and the other to settle their accounts in Spain and transfer precious metals to different creditors in other countries. Each "network" managed a distinct type of information to gain its goal.