Wealthy merchants invested on a large scale in trading ventures, but sometimes quite ordinary people invested small amounts as well. In this contract from the Italian city of Genoa, some of the investors are of such low social standing that they do not have last names, but are simply known by their occupation, and the one female investor is just called “mother of.” The two men who actually went on the voyage from Genoa to Corsica and Sardinia — not a very far distance — are the active partners.

Genoa, December 22, 1198

We, Embrone of Sozziglia and Master Alberto, acknowledge that we carry in accomandatio [business venture] for the purpose of trading £142 Genoese to the port of Bonifacio and through or in Corsica and Sardinia; and from there we are to come [back]. And of this [sum], £25 Genoese belong to you, Giordano Clerico; and £10 to you, Oberto Croce. And to you, Vasallo Rapallino, [belong] £10; and to you, Bonsignore Torre, £10. And £5 [belong] to Pietro Bonfante; and to you, Michele, tanner, [belong] £5; and to you, Giovanni del Pero, £5; and to Ara Dolce, £6; and to Ansaldo Mirto, £5; and to Martino, hemp-seller, £5; and to Ansaldo Fanti, £8; and to you, Lanfranco of Crosa, £20; and to Josbert, nephew of Charles of Besançon, £10. And £6 belong to me, Embrone; and £2 to me, Alberto. And all the pounds mentioned above are to be profitably employed and invested, and they are to draw by the pound [that is, each investor receives profits proportional to the investment]. And we promise to send [back] the capital and the profit which God shall have granted from this accomandatio [to be placed] in the power of the aforesaid persons to whom they belong. And after deduction of the capital we are to have one fourth of the profit; but the [entire] profit which comes to our [own] pounds is to be ours.

And Giordano, and Guglielmo, and Oberto, and Vassallo, and Bonsignore, and the mother of Pietro Bonfante, and Michele, tanner, and Giovanni del Pero, and Lanfranco of Crosa give [Embrone and Alberto] permission to send [part] of this accomandatio to Genoa, [to be placed] in the power of Giordano Clerico and of Bonsignore; and the same Giordano and Bonsignore are to have [permission] to invest it and to send it invested to the port of Bonifacio or to Sardinia…. Done in Genoa in the house of Guglielmo Vento. Witnesses: Arduino de Mari; Baldoino, broker of the Campo; Nicola, spinner.

Source: Robert S. Lopez and Harry Miskimin, Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955), pp. 182–183. Copyright © 1955, 1990, 2001 Columbia University Press. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

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