The objective of the seminar will be to understand the importance of intense credit activities at all levels of society, both in urban and rural areas over the long term, from consumer microcredit to the specific problem of the foundation of the Monti di Pietà in the various regional typologies, and to the forms of solidarity credit that, over the centuries, gave rise to more modern forms of banks.

Naples, Issm-Cnr October, 2-6 2017

Argument

The Institute of Studies on Mediterranean Societies (ISSM - Naples, Italy), Italian National Research Council (CNR), in collaboration with the University of Barcelona (Spain), the Institució Milà i Fontanals of Consejo Superior de Investigación Científica of Barcelona (Spain), the University of Suor Orsola Benincasa (Naples, Italy), the Italian Historical Institute in Medieval Studies, the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme - LabexMed of Aix-Marseille University (France), the University of Pablo De Olavide of Sevilla (Spain), the University of Rouen-GRHis, the Institute of History of Mediterranean Europe (ISEM CNR - Cagliari, Italy) and the Foundation of the Banco di Napoli (Naples, Italy), announces a competition for 12 scholarships for young researchers (graduate, PhD and postdoctoral research students) in order to attend the fourth seminar of doctoral studies on the topic of Credit. Trust, Solidarity, Citizenship (14th - 19th century).

There is a link between economy and citizenship that defines forms and lexicons of civic membership. The latter is largely encoded through credit practices, based on credibility and trust relationships, within a civilitas that in the mid-centuries of the Middle Ages and in the early Modern Age determined - starting from an identity closely connected to Christian faith - the characteristics of alterity and the resulting degrees of inclusion or social exclusion. When social exclusion becomes apparent because the economic system drives some to the poverty line, new solidarity mechanisms are put in place to try to bring “laborious poverty” into the productive system. But these same mechanisms of solidarity can turn into complex economic systems as far as they can offer more evolved credit practices.

The objective of the seminar will be to understand the importance of intense credit activities at all levels of society, both in urban and rural areas over the long term, from consumer microcredit to the specific problem of the foundation of the Monti di Pietà in the various regional typologies, and to the forms of solidarity credit that, over the centuries, gave rise to more modern forms of banks. We will therefore seek to understand the role they had:

• The collection and delivery of credit by some large welfare institutions and their role in financing the system of “public charity”;
• The relationship between these institutions and the trust placed in them, holding the assets of the poor by associating charitable purposes and credit services;
• The impact they have on the overall local economic cycle, both by guaranteeing the protection of private wealth and as a form of public debt financing;
• The functional transformations of the entities responsible for providing consumer credit and the presence of informal circuits, the nature and cost of operations, and the type of transactions;
• The role of fiduciary currency and its transformation into legal currency

The school has a residential character and will last one week. Classes will be held in Italian, French, English and Spanish to facilitate communication among the participants, and Power Point presentations will be in a language other than the one spoken by the participant.

The seminar consists of two sessions:

• A morning session dedicated to lectures and to visits to some of the city archives in which the historical documents on the topic of the seminar are preserved.
• An afternoon session for presentations of the work of young scholars (30 minutes), followed by discussions.

Application guidelines

Applicants should send a signed PDF dossier by e-mail and no later than

September 1, 2017,

to sepm@issm.cnr.it, along with the following:

• an application for admission with an indication of the area of studies;
• a curriculum (2-3 pages) of the research accomplished and a brief summary of ongoing research projects; - an abstract (minimum 4000 characters) and the title of the paper you wish to present in the afternoon;
• a letter of introduction.

The Scientific Committee reserves the right to accept other participants who, willing to take on travel and accomation expenses, motivate their interest in the seminar.

Scholarship winners will be notified by September 8, 2017. The participants will be required to attend all sessions.

• Groupe de Recherche d’Histoire
• Université de Rouen

Scientific Committee

• Paola Avallone, Gemma Colesanti, Raffaela Salvemini, Istituto di Studi sulle Società del Mediterraneo-CNR
• Amedeo Feniello, Salvatore Fodale, Istituto Storico italiano per il Medioevo
• Vittoria Fiorelli, Università Suor Orsola Benincasa
• Roser Salicrú I lluch, Institució Milà i Fontanals-CSIC-Barcelona
• Blanca Garí de Aguilera, Universitat de Barcelona
• Brigitte Marin, Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l’homme LabexMed, Aix-Marseille Université
• Anna Bellavitis, Università di Rouen-GRHis/IUF
• Manuel Herrero Sanchez, Universidad Pablo De Olavide

The 4th Edition of the Seminar of Doctoral Studies “History and Economy in the Mediterranean Countries” is included in the activities of PRIN2015 - At the origin of Welfare (13th-16th centuries). Medieval and modern roots of European culture of assistance and forms of social protection and solidarity credit.