Banco di San Giorgio
The most important financial institution of the Republic of Genoa, founded in 1407 through the consolidation of Genoa's public debt. The administration of the bank constituted the wealthiest men of the state who had the right to collect a series of taxes. In the 15th century the territorial posessions of Genoa were placed under the bank's administration as guarantees for future loans. The Palazzo San Giorgio built in 1260 was the seat of the bank.

chrysobull
(gold seal) Imperial document of the Byzantine state which was so named because it bore the gold seal of the emperor.

hyperpyron
The Byzantine gold coin, 4.3 gr. and 20 ½ carats, introduced by Alexios I Komnenos in 1092. It was preserved until the end of the Byzantine Empire with big changes in his cold content.

kommerkion
This name had two meanings in Byzantium 1. Commercium (lat.), which in late Roman times designated the frontier cities where exchanges with foreign merchants were authorised. 2. Kommerkion, which was a circulation and sales tax, paid at the customs, and collected on mercandise imported into the empire and on merchandise reaching Constantinople by the sea. It appears in the sources c. 800 and was also called dekate, its rate being 10 percent of the merchandise value.

Magnifica Communità di Pera
the name of the self-governing institution of Genoese merchants in Pera.

podesta or potesta
(lat. Potestas – power): name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities. The podesta was also:a) governor of the Venetian sector of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. b) head of the Genoese City Hall (14th-15th centuries) , governor in the Genoese acquisitions of Romania (Galata and Chios).c) Lombard magistrate in Euboea.

venetian ducat
golden coin (also zechin) from 1284 until the Early Modern times and even before World War I, used as a trade currency throughout Europe. Its weight is 3.4909 gr. of 986 pure gold.