History
Historically, promissory notes have acted as a form of privately issued currency. The first evidence of a promissory note being issued is that which Ginaldo Giovanni Battista Strozzi issued in Medina del Campo (Spain), against the city of Besançon in 1553. However, there exists notice of promissory notes being in used in the Mediterranean commerce well before that date. Tradition has it that the first one ever was signed in Milan in 1325. There's constance of promissory notes being issued in 1384 between Genova and Barcelona, although the letters themselves are lost. The same happens for the ones issued in Valencia in 1371 by Bernat de Codinachs for Manuel d'Entença, a merchant from Huesca (then part of the Crown of Aragon), amounting a total of 100 florins. In all these cases, the promissory notes were used as a rudimentary system of paper-money, for the amounts issued could not be easily transported in metal coins between the cities involved.
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