Taula de canvi de Barcelona
Company type | Banking |
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The Taula de canvi of Barcelona, created in 1401 and still extant in diminished form in the 19th century, was a municipal bank in Barcelona that has been described as the first-ever central bank.[1] A Taula de canvi ("Table of change" in Catalan), also Taula de cambi or simply Taula, was a type of municipal public bank that existed in the Crown of Aragon in the late Middle Ages and early modern period.
History
The first Taula de canvi was created following a request of the city of Barcelona's main governing body, the
Structure and governance
The Taula's charter, dated 1405 or 1412 depending on authors, is the oldest preserved public bank regulation. Its design remained essentially unchanged for 300 years until the early 18th century.[1]: 197 The Taula was a fully-owned operation of the city with a city guarantee of its deposits, and there is no evidence that it had capital of its own. The city appointed the Taula's taulers who worked on the table and its cashier for two-years fixed terms and paid their salaries. Other Taula officers, including its regent, chief of deposits, credencer in charge of first bookings, and notary, were appointed for life.[2]: 4 [3]: 29 The Taula's coffers had six keys, of which two were held by each tauler and two by the city councillors. The Taula was also subject to frequent inspection by municipal auditors.[2]: 5
In 1609, the city council created the Bank of the City of Barcelona (Banc de la Ciutat) as an independent department of the municipal administration, to accept lower-quality coins than were allowed under the Taula's regulation. In practice, that bank appears to have operated as an extension of the Taula rather than a separate let alone competing institution.[4]
Operations
The Taula's objective was to provide an efficient and stable central deposit and giro transfer system,[2] and, in its initial decades of operations, to provide funding to the city. From 1413 it also served as fiscal agent for the Generalitat of Catalonia.[3]: 29
It accepted both sight deposits and
From its inception the Taula was systemically significant. Its oldest surviving book records over 500 individual accounts. It kept the deposits of the Generalitat, of the Barcelona Cathedral chapter, of religious institutions, of trade bodies, of military orders, and of the Aragonese monarchs.[2]: 6
The Taula was granted a monopoly on certain types of deposits, e.g. those of minors. From 1446 to 1499 it also had a legal monopoly on the clearing of bills of exchange. It competed with private banks to attract deposits, but unlike these did not pay interest on sight deposits.[3]: 30
The Taula suspended the convertibility of deposits in 1463-1468 during the
Other Taules de canvi
Valencia
Several successive Taules de canvi were established in Valencia, respectively from 1408 to 1416 (or 1418),[2]: 7 1519 to 1649 (Taula Nova), and 1649 to 1719 (Taula Novisima). The Taula of Valencia was a deposit bank and fiscal agent of the city.[3]: 31
Girona
A royal document authorized the creation of a Taula de canvi in Girona on 23 January 1443. The bank was again established by the City Council on 28 February 1568 and operated until being finally closed by order of King Philip V in 1741.
Other locales
Taules de canvi were also created in
See also
- Gran Tavola
- Bank of Saint George
- Banco del Giro
- Bank of Amsterdam
- Hamburger Bank
- List of central banks
Notes
- ^ a b c d Ulrich Bindseil (2019). Central Banking before 1800: A Rehabilitation. Oxford University Press.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Manuel Sánchez Sarto [in Spanish] (1964). "Les Banques publiques en Espagne jusqu'à 1815". In Johannes Gerard van Dillen (ed.). History of the Principal Public Banks. Frank Cass & Co. p. 3.
- ^ a b c d e f g William Roberds; François Velde (August 2014), Early Public Banks (PDF), Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, p. 31
- ^ Abbott Payson Usher (1943). The Early History of Deposit Banking in Mediterranean Europe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. 438.
- ^ Marc Pons (9 June 2019). "La Taula de Canvi: el primer banco público de la historia de Europa". El Nacional.
- ^ a b "change table". encyclopèdia.cat.