Carlo Taviani is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He has been a research fellow at Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom and at the Italian-German Historical Institute in Trent. He has held fellowships at the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici, I Tatti (the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies) and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago and the MacMillan Center at Yale and a visiting lecturer at the University of Cape Town. He taught at the Università degli Studi di Teramo, the Università degli Studi di Trento, and the University of Cape Town. He is currently teaching at the University of Bologna.

Introduction. Debating the Origins of Business Corporations / Part I: Finance and Organization of the Casa Di San Giorgio (1407-1518) / Chapter 1. Origins and Foundation of San Giorgio / Chapter 2. Financial and Fiscal Features of San Giorgio / Chapter 3: San Giorgio's Political Features / Part II: The Casa di San Giorgio's Territories (1407-1518) / Chapter 4. Origins of San Giorgio's Territorial Power / Chapter 5. On the Black Sea / Chapter 6. In Liguria and Corsica / Part III: Genoa's Two Seats of Power: The Commune and San Giorgio (1453-66) / Chapter 7. Contra San Giorgio / Chapter 8. Machiavelli and San Giorgio / Part IV: The Casa di San Giorgio's Model (1518-1791) / Chapter 9. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) and San Giorgio / Chapter 10. The Bank of England and San Giorgio / Chapter 11. John Law and the Mississippi Company / Conclusion