BANKS, HISTORY OF. Perhaps the earliest definition of a bank is found in "Lex Mercatoria" by Gerard Malynes, pub lished in London in 1622. He says : "A Bank is properly a Collection of all the ready money of some Kingdom, Commonwealth, or Province, as also of a par ticular City or Town, into the hands of some persons licensed and established thereunto by publick authority of some King, Prince, or Commonwealth." This definition was in all probability derived from the author's experience of the exchange banks, such as Rotterdam, Middel burg, Amsterdam and possibly Hamburg, and also from his knowl edge of the famous Italian banks in Venice and Genoa. These latter banks were even in 1622 of great fame and antiquity. The Casa di San Giorgio of Genoa had gradually extended its com mitments and powers, until it was not only a deposit bank but also acquired many of the functions and powers of the Govern ment itself. In 1453 Corsica, Pera and the Genoese Black sea colonies were ceded to it, and according to Machiavelli, its ad ministration was more efficient and less tyrannical than that of the State. In short, it had an honourable history until 1 i97, and it is arguable that it is a direct ancestor of the present Banca d'Italia (q.v.).
Venice saw the growth in the middle ages of a number of private institutions which gradually developed from money-changers to something very like the modern bank.' Their history was not so uniform as that of the Casa di San Giorgio and ultimately it was deemed necessary to found a "public bank." This was the Banco della Piazza del Rialto, which dates from 1584. Thirty years later the more famous Banco del Giro was founded, and the two combined in 1637. The new bank survived until 1806.