Avignon Exchange

A map of the old city of Avignon (1914); the Exchange was located in what is now the *Rue de la République* running from the center of the city to the southwest.

The Avignon Exchange was one of the first foreign exchange markets in history, established in the Comtat Venaissin during the Avignon Papacy. The Exchange was composed of the agents (factores) of the great Italian banking-houses, who acted as money-changers as well as financial intermediaries between the Apostolic Camera and its debtors and creditors.^[1] The most prosperous quarter of the city of Avignon, where the bankers settled, became known simply as the Exchange.^[1] According to de Roover, "Avignon can be considered an Italian colony, since the papal bankers were all Italians".^[2]

Avignon was the first legal body to regulate fiduciary transactions:^[3] a statute of Avignon, of 1243, contains a paragraph entitled De Litteris Cambii, "of bills of exchange".^[4]

^ ^a ^b Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Avignon" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
^ de Roover, Raymond. 2007. Money, Banking and Credit in Mediaeval Bruges. ISBN 1-4067-3858-1. p. 3.
^ Alsonso Martín and Agostín Aurelio y Blasco Cirera, La banca a través de los tiempos (Barcelona) 1926:133.
^ René de Mauldes, "Coûtumes et reglements de la République d'Avignon au XIIIe siècle", Revue historique de droit français et etranger 1878:378, noted in Piedro Alfonso Labariega Villanueva, "La metamorfosis de la acceptación cambiaria desde el régimen statutario hasta el reglamentario internacional uniforme", II.1 "Los estatutos de Aviñón de 1243", in Revesto del Derecho Privado 6 (September 2007/August 2008:17-36), p 15 (on-line text).

[catholic-1] Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Avignon" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

[2] Roover, Raymond. 2007. Money, Banking and Credit in Mediaeval Bruges. ISBN 1-4067-3858-1. p. 3.

[3] Alsonso Martín and Agostín Aurelio y Blasco Cirera, La banca a través de los tiempos (Barcelona) 1926:133.

[4] René de Mauldes, "Coûtumes et reglements de la République d'Avignon au XIIIe siècle", Revue historique de droit français et etranger 1878:378, noted in Piedro Alfonso Labariega Villanueva, "La metamorfosis de la acceptación cambiaria desde el régimen statutario hasta el reglamentario internacional uniforme", II.1 "Los estatutos de Aviñón de 1243", in Revesto del Derecho Privado 6 (September 2007/August 2008:17-36), p 15 (on-line text).

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