Maona
Encyclopedia
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
association of investors formed to manage the purchased shares
Share (finance)
A joint stock company divides its capital into units of equal denomination. Each unit is called a share. These units are offered for sale to raise capital. This is termed as issuing shares. A person who buys share/shares of the company is called a shareholder, and by acquiring share or shares in...
(loca or partes) of the revenue due to the relevant city-state through tax farming
Tax farming
Farming is a technique of financial management, namely the process of commuting , by its assignment by legal contract to a third party, a future uncertain revenue stream into fixed and certain periodic rents, in consideration for which commutation a discount in value received is suffered...
; the shares were individually sold to wealthy merchants, but the collection could be difficult and so these merchants would band together.
Characteristics
These organizations were usually temporary, and could sometimes be extremely aggressive in extracting the monies due them; their actions went up to, and included, outright conquest. The origins of the concept of joint investment combined with joint (private) enforcement can be traced back to trade financing in MesopotamiaMesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
. The linguistic roots of the Arabic word Maounach can best be translated as help or helping each other. The maonas were de facto the first examples of shareholding companies (in the Western world at least) and were used by the Genoese to enlarge their dominions in the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
in the 14th century.
Maona were especially common in Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
and the territories of the Republic of Genoa
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
.
The genoese Maona of ChiosChiosChios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
Historically the most famous Maona was that of Chios. The Genoese authorities of ChiosChios
Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
and their Greek subjects (who constituted the majority of island’s population - 80%) were subjects of the Republic of Genoa
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
. Initially, many of the Mahona associates and therefore members of the island’s administration were citizens as well as inhabitants of Genoa. The members of the company for more than two centuries were entitled to the revenues deriving from the natural or economic resources of the island. In return they had to pay an annual tribute to Genoa.
After two years, the original shareholders that lived in Genoa sold their shares to some colonists that already lived in Chios or to some Genoese citizens that migrated to the island. These new members constituted the New Mahona that was also subsequently became known as the Mahona (or Maona) of the Giustiniani
Giustiniani
Giustiniani is the name of a prominent Italian family which originally belonged to Venice, but also established itself subsequently in Genoa, and at various times had representatives in Naples, Corsica and in the islands of the Archipelago, where they had been the last Genoese rulers of the Aegean...
. Since the Republic was unable to redeem the island from the Giustiniani, Chios remained in their possession till its final fall to the Turks. In the mean-time the Mahonesi had to pay tributes to Genoa, at the beginning to the Byzantine emperor John V Palaiologos
John V Palaiologos
John V Palaiologos was a Byzantine emperor, who succeeded his father in 1341, at age nine.-Biography:...
in 1363 and finally to the Turks.
Once the conquest of Chios was successfully achieved, the ship-owners then returned to Genoa and advanced the sum of 250,000 lire to cover the expenses of the campaign. After long deliberations, an agreement was concluded on 26 February 1347 between the Commune and the group of its creditors represented by the Genoese admiral Simone Vignoso. This association took the name of Maona of Chios. The debt owed to the ship-owners was repaid in shares, or "luoghi", to an amount of 203,000 genoese lire.
This was less than the commanders of the ships demanded, but nonetheless they got property and the administration of Chios and Phocaea
Phocaea
Phocaea, or Phokaia, was an ancient Ionian Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia. Greek colonists from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia in 600 BC, Emporion in 575 BC and Elea in 540 BC.-Geography:Phocaea was the northernmost...
, in addition to the revenues provided by the "luoghi". The more-or-less forced benevolence of the ship-owners made up for the deficiencies of the state, which was then obliged to hand over public revenues to them to meet its obligations.
The Justinians with their Maona governed Chios, appointing a commissioner and commanding 52 military Genuates in the island: during these years (1346-1566), the trade revived and the island enjoyed huge prosperity. The Mahona of Chios ended its activities in 1566 when the Turks invaded and occupied the island.
The model proved successful and in 1373 the Genoese founded also the "Maona Vecchia di Cipro" in Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
.