Foreword / by Steven Haberman -- Introduction: Navigating the centuries / Ouida Taaffe -- Banking, finance and society : what keeps the motor running? / Peter Hahn -- Standing the test of time / Paul Lynam -- What happens when nobody is watching : regulation, bank risk culture and achieving...

I examine the Neapolitan public banks, a group of non-profit institutions that emerged in the late sixteenth century, in the context of the early public banks that existed elsewhere in early modern Europe. In terms of size and stability they compare well with their peers, in spite of a difficult...