Italian investment and merchant banking up to 1914: Hybridising international models and practices

This paper focuses on the specific legacy of the 19th century private banking on Italian major mixed banks' practices. We consider their international connections (Paris, Berlin, etc.) and their operating patterns as compared to European ones. Besides, we provide a comparative quantitative analysis of their portfolios in order to evaluate how much they differed from the other major European universal banks, and to which extent investment banking activities were relevant in their portfolios.