Editing Central bank (section)

===Early municipal central banks===
[[File:Saló de contractacions - 45587886644.jpg|thumb|Interior of the [[Llotja de Barcelona]] where the city's ''Taula de canvi'' was operated]]

The [[Taula de canvi de Barcelona]], established in 1401, is the first example of municipal, mostly public banks which pioneered central banking on a limited scale. It was soon emulated by the [[Bank of Saint George]] in the [[Republic of Genoa]], first established in 1407, and significantly later by the [[Banco del Giro]] in the [[Republic of Venice]] and by a network of institutions in [[Naples]] that later consolidated into [[Banco di Napoli]]. Notable municipal central banks were established in the early 17th century in leading northwestern European commercial centers, namely the [[Bank of Amsterdam]] in 1609<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Quinn |first1=Stephen |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781108594752/type/book |title=How a Ledger Became a Central Bank: A Monetary History of the Bank of Amsterdam |last2=Roberds |first2=William |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-59475-2 |doi=10.1017/9781108594752|s2cid=265264153 }}</ref> and the [[Hamburger Bank]] in 1619.<ref>Quinn, Stephen; Roberds, William (2006), [http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=934871 "An Economic Explanation of the Early Bank of Amsterdam, Debasement, Bills of Exchange, and the Emergence of the First Central Bank"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110503180739/http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=934871 |date=3 May 2011 }}, [[Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta]], Working Paper 2006–13</ref> These institutions offered a public infrastructure for cashless international payments.<ref>Collins, Christopher. ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, Volume 3. Banking: Middle Ages and Early Modern Period'', Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 223</ref> They aimed to increase the efficiency of international trade and to safeguard monetary stability. These municipal public banks thus fulfilled comparable functions to modern central banks.<ref>Kurgan-van Hentenryk, Ginette. ''Banking, Trade and Industry: Europe, America and Asia from the Thirteenth to the Twentieth Century'', Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 39</ref>