ABSTRACT
The communal archives of the small towns of Todi, Ascoli and Matelica, north and east of Rome, contain the oldest agreements concluded with Jewish financiers from Rome at the end of the thirteenth century. They are not as yet the classic type of condotte, or specifically loans on security. Particularly curious is the contract concluded between the commune of Ascoli and a consortium of twenty or so lenders from Florence, Arezzo and Rome in 1297. On payment of 100 gold florins a year, they obtained the monopoly of lending at interest in Ascoli and, if they wished, were allowed to bring other capitalists in. But what is interesting about the document is the association between Christian and Jewish lenders it seems to reflect, in that the eighteen Tuscans were Christians, while the four from Rome have Jewish names. The document, however, does not contain the clauses relating to the free practice of the Jewish religion that might have been expected. It does at least show that Jewish finance (at its beginnings) and Christian finance did occasionally combine.1
