Between two Shores: the Accounts of the Merchant Companies in Ragusa (Dubrovnik) in the Fisrt Half of the Fifteenth Century

In 1999, Desanka Kovačević-Kojić published the edition of the account-books of the Caboga brothers (1426-1433), held by the Archives of Dubrovnik, with an introductory study on the use of accounting and double-entry bookkeeping in Ragusa in the fifteenth century. According to the scholar, the techiques in use resembled very closely those adopted in Venice. The present work, drawing on published and unpublished archival materials, aims to broaden the perspective and to highlight how, starting from the 1420s, the massive presence of Tuscan merchants in Ragusa – mainly coming from Florence and from the nearby Prato – has been crucial also from the point of view of the accounting techniques adopted by local merchants. This paper will compare the accounting system and techniques adopted in Tuscany and Ragusa: preliminary findings suggest that the key role played by Tuscan merchants in the Ragusean commercial world also had an influence on the way local merchants implemented their organizational forms and management techniques.