Art of Trade – 500 years later

Benedetto Cotrugli’s intellectual legacy is more relevant than ever today. His powerful messages about the necessity of educated and ethical businesspeople who work for society’s general interest still form the cornerstone of the philosophy around which COTRUGLI Business School was founded.

Just like Cotrugli, we at COTRUGLI believe in doing business responsibly and morally, looking long-term, and seeking to make far-reaching, lasting, and relevant impacts on future generations of leaders. We are convinced that only continuous education and a passion for personal development lead to an entrepreneurial and business renaissance. We also recognize the necessary interplay between educational institutions, government policy, and the private sector.

We are proud to have named our School after one of the most inspiring businessmen in history and to bring you the ‘Art of Trade’, his major work. We hope you will find many valuable professional and personal lessons within.

Benedetto Cotrugli lived and worked during the Renaissance, one of the most innovative periods in mankind’s history. This period brought a new view of the world and strongly pushed the development of art, science, culture, and economy. It was a period of great importance for developing prosperity for individuals and the community.

Benedetto was born into a family of respectable merchants and diplomats in 1416 in Dubrovnik, at the peak of its cultural and economic prosperity. The family enjoyed a widespread reputation, enabling him to gain an excellent education, first in Dubrovnik, then Ferrara, and later at well-known universities in Bologna and Naples. Apart from studying philosophy and law, he gained insights into the most important developments of the time. When he inherited his father’s business, he expanded it successfully to the Aragon Kingdom, the wealthiest of The Western Mediterranean Kingdoms, Catalonia, and its cities, Barcelona and Tortosa. Opposite to the medieval contemplative ideal, Cotrugli traveled widely, visiting Sicily, Northern Africa, and Catalonia, which enabled him to learn about the economy and business and improve his business. The historical sources from Catalonia, which date back then, mention Cotrugli as the first Merchant from the Dubrovnik Republic in Barcelona. By the mid-century, Cotrugli had left Dubrovnik and lived in Naples, where he would spend the rest of his life. At the Court, Italy’s center of art, culture, and literature and the cultural meeting point of Italy and Spain, Cotrugli was in King Alfonso’s and then his son Ferdinand’s diplomatic service.  In 1458, he became Consulate General for the Dubrovnik Republic in Naples and was mint manager in Naples and Aquila. He died in 1469 at the age of 53.

Cotrugli’s legacy was his business achievements and his passion for intellectual and cultural wisdom. He firmly believed only a man educated to perfection can be perfect.

His libraries in Dubrovnik and Naples contained the most famous works of Classical Antiquity, Christian theology, philosophy, Judaism, and Arabic culture. The breadth of his knowledge is best portrayed in the following works, which demonstrate his intellectual curiosity: On Choosing a Wife (De uxore ducenda), On the Nature of Flowers (Della natura dei fiori), On Sailing (De Navigatione), and Art of Trade (Il libro del arte del mercatura). Given his intellectual curiosity, free spirit, knowledge and wisdom, Cotrugli truly represents homo universalis, the ideal of Humanism.

Cotrugli’s Art of Trade is an essential entrepreneurship and personal development history book. Its far-reaching influence is felt in the modern day theories of economics and business. The book was written in 1458 at the Serpica castle, close to Naples, where he found shelter against plague, and was dedicated to Frano Stjepović, a merchant from Dubrovnik. The book has an exciting history, which has greatly influenced the legacy of Cotrugli and the significance of his work. Although completed in mid 15th century, it remained unpublished for over a century. It was finally printed in 1573, after a patriot, Ivan Josipović from Dubrovnik, delivered an unsigned transcript to Franjo Petrić, the owner of  All’ Elefanta printing office. The published book was a major success; it was widely acclaimed in the 16th and 17th centuries and was printed in several editions in Italy and in France. However, Petrić made significant changes to the original text as it was later discovered. In addition to correcting the mistakes made in the transcript, he changed the original title from Il libro del arte del mercatura.

The Art of Trade

(Art of Trade) Della mercatura et del mercante perfetto (On trade and perfect tradesman). He also dramatically intervened in the content of Chapter 13, which was dedicated to double-entry bookkeeping. Although the method had been used long before Cotrugli wrote his book, it is to his credit for explaining the elaborate method for the first time and making it available to mankind. The changes Petrić made in the text , and the duration between the making and printing of the book made experts question its originality. Consequently, the credit for introducing double-entry bookkeeping went to Luca Pacioli, the author of Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita, printed in 1494, which included a section on double-entry bookkeeping. Pacioli received this accolade for almost four centuries. The breakthrough in interpreting Cotrugli’s important work on double-entry bookkeeping happened in the 20th century when Florentine (1458 and around 1500) and Maltese (1475) transcripts were found. These transcripts showed an entirely different version of the controversial Chapter 13 from the text printed in 1573.

Although Art of Trade celebrates merchants as the bearers of economic and cultural changes and trade as ”the noblest skill” and one of ”the major state symbols,” the true importance of the book lies in its utilitarianism. Cotrugli was the first to provide a systematic overview of trade’s social and economic aspects and suggestions for its improvement. He made it a science and defined it as a skill or a set of rules that makes legal entities act righteously in matters of commerce to preserve mankind and in the hope of profit. He gave the trade a global outlook and thoroughness, which the previous works needed.

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The book reflects the humanistic ideal of acting in the public’s general interest, or as Cotrugli points out, “wise people want to bequeath their experience to the written word, so as to sow their wisdom among their offspring”. Cotrugli considered it his duty to write about the state of trade and provide valuable guidelines, as it was filled with “mess, corruption, vanity, and dishonesty.” The purpose of his book was not only to describe and improve the way trade was practiced but also to build a fine tradesman, educated and moral to provide credibility to the trade profession. Although aware of the wide acclaim and recognition the book would have gained had it been written in Latin, he decided to write it in lingua volgare e materna, the Italian language, so that the merchants to whom the book was primarily dedicated would understand it better.

The book consists of four parts. The first speaks about the origin, form, and essence of trade. The second is dedicated to religion as a value system, which leads the merchant to his goal and forms the foundation of living an honest life. The third part discusses the integrity and ethics in trade, making ethics a benchmark for human behavior. Finally, the fourth part discusses running households and family life, which aligned with humanistic philosophy and Cotrugli’s belief that the family should have a prominent place in trade organization. As such, the book synthesizes humanistic and medieval viewpoints.

Even though Art of Trade was written in the 15th century, its significance is universal as it encompasses numerous aspects that are essential today: career orientation, the economy of time (time is money), availability and relevance of information, focus on economic and political aspects in decision making, risk avoidance by diversification, the necessity for innovation in entrepreneurship, morality, and ethics, balancing private and professional life, building reputation, appropriateness of verbal and nonverbal communication and many other.

Considering his contributions to philosophy, sociology, psychology, and, most importantly, economics, it is safe to say that Benedetto Cotrugli was a global businessman and one of the most prominent representatives of Humanism in general.