Signs of economic development in the Kingdom of Naples under the Aragonese Crown: the Coppola Company

Abstract The article examines the role played by Loise and Francesco Coppola’s company under the Aragonese Crown, so as to outline the socio-economic situation of Southern Italy at that time and examine the impact of foreign merchant-banking companies on the development of local entrepreneurship. In the second half of the fifteenth century, Florentine bankers Filippo and Lorenzo Strozzi established a bank in Naples. Using two surviving general journals, dating back to 1473 and 1476, their lending business can be analysed. As the bookkeeper of the Strozzi Bank used to record any transaction using double-entry bookkeeping, such journals help to identify the types of clients the Strozzi Bank dealt with and the reasons for individual transactions. The article outlines the crucial role played by the Coppola family in the development of the southern economy in the fifteenth century, showing how their company was part of international commercial networks that included the wealthiest and most powerful merchant-banking businesses of the time.