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That is an interesting wikip link I'd never think to branch on, say, in my past personal history interest of Florentine family rivalry. If you are particularly

by e3pi 13y ago

That is an interesting wikip link I'd never think to branch on, say, in my past personal history interest of Florentine family rivalry. If you are particularly versed of European banking, would you know of what banks have had a long run, or the most durable? I understand Baring's had been around awhile, until their recent demise. BTW, I read once, the Beretta family, Brescia, Italy, has been making guns, privately owned, for some 500 years, perhaps the most enduring privately held company surviving today.

hga 13y ago
Afraid I'm not well versed in European banking history, just the highest of highlights, e.g. I know the names Medici and Rothschild, of the Credit-Anstalt failure and various of the current names. (This is a very post-WWI American attitude per http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375412301/ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375412301/) But I am something of a domain expert on firearms, and yes, the Beretta family has been privately making guns since 1526 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta): "The Beretta company was established in 1526, when gunsmith Maestro Bartolomeo Beretta of Gardone Val Trompia (Brescia, Lombardy, Italy) was paid 296 ducats for 185 arquebus barrels by the Arsenal of Venice. The bills of sale for the order of those barrels are in the firm's archive." And I know their post-WWII quality is very good, my father is big on them for smaller stuff since he'd left handed and they're big on being adjustable for lefties, even ejection direction in carbines (!). They got the contract for the US military's "new" handgun---well, as of 1985, I carry the previous 1911 design since it fits my hands perfectly---and of course they set up production in the US. I bring this up because they made the mistake of doing that in Maryland, prior to this year perhaps the most tolerable of the viciously anti-gun states in the US. Once it started going over the top post-Newtown, one of the family members came over, talked to the governor, etc., to no avail, and now they're expanding outside of the state and eventually moving production. They of course took it as among other things a personal insult, and no doubt deeply understand the vicissitudes of politics.
deleted 13y ago
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by e3pi 13y ago

hga 13y ago

Afraid I'm not well versed in European banking history, just the highest of highlights, e.g. I know the names Medici and Rothschild, of the Credit-Anstalt failure and various of the current names. (This is a very post-WWI American attitude per http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375412301/ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375412301/) But I am something of a domain expert on firearms, and yes, the Beretta family has been privately making guns since 1526 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta): "The Beretta company was established in 1526, when gunsmith Maestro Bartolomeo Beretta of Gardone Val Trompia (Brescia, Lombardy, Italy) was paid 296 ducats for 185 arquebus barrels by the Arsenal of Venice. The bills of sale for the order of those barrels are in the firm's archive." And I know their post-WWII quality is very good, my father is big on them for smaller stuff since he'd left handed and they're big on being adjustable for lefties, even ejection direction in carbines (!). They got the contract for the US military's "new" handgun---well, as of 1985, I carry the previous 1911 design since it fits my hands perfectly---and of course they set up production in the US. I bring this up because they made the mistake of doing that in Maryland, prior to this year perhaps the most tolerable of the viciously anti-gun states in the US. Once it started going over the top post-Newtown, one of the family members came over, talked to the governor, etc., to no avail, and now they're expanding outside of the state and eventually moving production. They of course took it as among other things a personal insult, and no doubt deeply understand the vicissitudes of politics.

deleted 13y ago

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