Search

This dissertation takes the form of a chronologically arranged, biographical survey of the career of Bonifacio de' Pitati in the form of seven interconnected essays that address areas in which the artist's impact and contribution to Venetian painting is in need of definition. These chapters are in turn subordinate to a format that splits itself into the following three parts: Part One deals with Bonifacio the artist; his life, reputation and his early emergence from Palma's studio: In summarising the archival and critical heritage, Chapter One addresses the changing identity and reputation of the artist. Chapter Two investigates Bonifacio's early career and his sustained affiliation to his master, Palma Vecchio. Part Two provides an anatomy of Bonifacio's workshop and the key commissions upon which it was engaged: Chapter Three discusses Bonifacio's production of sacre conversazioni, while Chapter Four reconstructs Bonifacio's contribution to the decoration of the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi, the site of the Venetian Treasury. Chapter Five further investigates the artist's workshop production, his commercial identity and business strategy. Part Three deals with Bonifacio's artistic legacy and the influence he exerted over a number of disciples who flourished during his later years and after his death: Chapter Five analyses the evidence for Bonifacio's role in the early careers of Tintoretto and his contemporaries, while Chapter Seven addresses Bonifacio's late work, the unravelling of his enterprise and his relationship to his artistic descendants. A conclusion is provided, alongside a series of appendices which include a register of documents, an inventory of paintings originally in the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi and a discussion of Bonifacio's career as a portraitist.

The historiography of economic relationships between Britain and the Southern Cone during the first half of the nineteenth century largely ignores trade. Yet, neither British direct, nor portfolio, investment was important during this period, when the main gains arose from trade, and directly associated invisible earnings: credits, shipping freights and insurance. British exports have long been taken for granted to the extent that there are no specific considerations of textile exports to Latin America. Between 1815 and 1859, textiles comprised over 80 per cent of British exports to the Southern Cone. This thesis considers in detail the process by which textiles were transferred from British manufacturers to local wholesalers. The various relationships between manufacturers, merchants, ship-brokers, underwriters and mercantile houses are assessed and analysed. New light is thrown on the relative roles of the consignment system and own account operations, advances against consignments, marine insurances, return remittances, commissions and fees, shipping strategies, packing, and on the use and management of samples and pattern books. Along with a lack of awareness of how British textiles were exported, little was known about the actual growth of Britain’s exports to this region. The picture painted by the historiography, which lacked robust data, was that early exports glutted the markets. It has been maintained that, thereafter, the small, low-income and scattered rural population of the Southern Cone had little to offer in exchange. Furthermore, it has also been put forward that high internal transport costs made this former backwater of the Spanish Empire nothing but a marginal market. This view considers the Southern Cone solely ‘responsible’ for the supposedly low volume of British exports. Post-1860s developments – railways and European migration on a sizeable scale – are regarded as being responsible for the growth of exports. This simplistic yet well-rooted approach is challenged. There was nothing exceptional in the development of the value of British exports to this market. When measured by volume, textiles exported by Britain to the Southern Cone expanded continuously throughout the 1820s, 1830s and 1840s and at very high rates, in particular, if per capita consumption is considered. Apart from the factors considered in the historiography, an explanation of the Southern Cone’s increasing absorption of British manufactures from the 1820s requires an examination of other local conditions as well as the changing situation in Britain, namely: improvements in packing of textiles; falling costs of productions in Britain; falling ocean freight rates; falling marine insurances; introduction of free trade in Britain; dramatic improvements in communications; falling import duties on the spot; better port facilities; struggle of local craft industries; and the establishment of a more stable political system on the spot.

Provincial banking in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy prior to the First World War was well developed. It fulfilled important economic and social functions as well as holding a significant share of the banking sector. In the successor states, after the collapse of the Monarchy, provincial banking lost some of its strength, but remained an important factor. However, the historiography of provincial banking remained underdeveloped due to the limits of archive material, the small number of case studies and a generally low level of knowledge about provincial banking. This thesis aims to fill the gap by reconstructing the broad structure of provincial banking and its place in the overall banking systems of several selected regions of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and successor states for the sample years 1913 and 1925. General knowledge and understanding of provincial banking can be improved by analysing the business structure of the provincial banks based on the analysis of balance sheets and the reaction of provincial banking to economic, monetary and political disturbances caused by the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. This dissertation has two parts. The first part presents the general framework of the research, through a survey of the existing historiography and an outline of the methodology of the research. It also offers some necessary introductory information about credit cooperatives, provincial banking and the economic and financial framework in which provincial banks operated. The second part consists of an analysis of the database containing information on all financial institutions within the assessed territory and information from the balance sheets of provincial banks. The Appendix to the thesis contains a glossary of the terminology used in balance sheets, and the main database. The database and thesis is designed to serve as a useful foundation for future case studies of the historiography of provincial banking in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

The thesis analyses the finance of manufacturing in Sheffield's economic region between 1850 and 1885, concentrating upon its main trades. Industrialists had to cope financially with both national economic fluctuations, especially the early 1870s boom and the depression of 1874-79, and rapid changes in technology. Cyclical expansion, survival during a slump, or the adoption of new techniques, all required financing. Initially, to determine financial demand, the scale and structure of manufacturing was considered and comparisons drawn between 1850 and 1885. The demand for funds has also been reviewed through study of five particular local firms. From the supply side, undertakings which adopted limited liability as a form of organisation and a method of financing were analysed with respect to geographical and social sources of subscriptions, together with provincial banks in terms of their particular provision of funds. The research is empirically based and analysis has involved the extensive use of computer software. The work has revealed a continuing, interrelated pattern of very localised manufacturing, banks and system of finance. Indeed, the financial system mirrored the area's productive structure. Industry remained predominantly small-scale and banks continued to operate at a parochial level. Consequently, a regional financial network has been revealed which, along with the plough-back of profits, generally appears to have provided manufacturing with adequate funds. This system came under strain, however, especially when the banks could not adequately meet the needs of either the few large-scale firms that emerged, or, more generally, demand during the deep cyclical slump of 1874-79. Therefore, the thesis provides a wide ranging analysis of the finance and organisation of industry in the Sheffield region - an area of considerable industrial importance - during the mid-nineteenth century, a period of incomplete transition from the workshop to the factory.