The birth of a new form of business organization, the partnership system, in Renaissance Florence is examined closely in order to discover the social processes of invention in that extraordinarily inventive place. Stated generally, the processes of invention the authors discover there are transposition, refunctionality, and catalysis across multiple social networks. Specifically, political co-optation of cambio bankers in the aftermath of the Ciompi revolt induced the transposition of domestic guild methods to the international plane, thereby changing their purpose and their reach. Subsequent social absorption through marriage of these elevated bankers into the victorious political alliance infused partnership with the multiplex logic (and often money) of dowry, thereby reproducing partnership systems as an integral component in post-Ciompi republicanism. Medieval organizational logics of patrilineage and guild were transformed into Renaissance organizational logics of marriage and clientage. The origins of financial capitalism are partly rooted in this elite social-network response to class revolt.

currently in revise & resubmit status at American Journal of Sociology word count = 21,871 without footnotes; 28,371 with footnotes 1 The authors gratefully acknowledge a series of small grants from the Social Science Division of the University of Chicago, which helped in the collection of data, and a substantial grant from the Hewlett Foundation, which funds John Padgett’s and Walter Powell’s “Co-evolution of States and Markets ” program at the Santa Fe Institute. SFI is the intellectual and research home of this project; we deeply appreciate its support over numerous years. David Sallach

The authors gratefully acknowledge a series of small grants from the Social Science Division of the University of Chicago, which helped in the collection of data. The Santa Fe Institute enthusiastically gave intellectual and research support to the first author. SFI is a creative environment in which to work. David Sallach and Nick Collier, of the Social Science Research Computing Center at the University of Chicago, offered the kind gift of their services in helping to organize the data into relational data-base form. We have received helpful comments on an earlier draft of