Faith and Finance: From Renaissance Fortuna to the Futures Market

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Faith and Finance How do ideas about the future affect our attitudes towards risk-taking? How is a central religious value and practice of faith historically related to financial notions of debt, credit, and money? This course examines the ways in which a new idea of the future in Renaissance Italy, as undetermined and distinct from providence, gave shape to a speculative financial and commercial culture. These have shaped, in their turn, modern financial institutions, including the global market. which has in their turn generated contemporary financial institutions including the global market, and political economy. We will examine the role of Renaissance bankers and merchants as patrons of the arts, as well as artists, philosophers, and theologians in shaping and evaluating commercial and political cultures of speculation and risk. Topics and texts include: the notion of Fortuna in Machiavelli's milestone book The Prince, the first public debt fund; charity funds; merchants conducting transnational trade.