Before Musk, there was Chigi

The relationship between Elon Musk and the White House has a remarkable precedent in the Italian Renaissance

“Portrait of Pope Julius II”, Raphael, 1511 and “Portrait of Agostino Chigi, the Magnificent”, unknown painter, 16th century

The relationship between state power and moneyed interests is, of course, as old as human governance. An awareness of its extent, and darker implications, from the military industrial complex to outright corruption, forms the common ground between both the left and right wings of the modern political arena.

Both because of and in spite of this milieu, the public alliance of Donald Trump and Elon Musk has presented an apparently intriguing novelty. Much of the Western press has certainly condemned the prominence of Musk, accusing the United States of embracing oligarchy.

Such an accusation might have greater credibility had “the acquisition of unwarranted influence”, as President Eisenhower put it in 1961, not been a plague upon Washington for many decades before the Trump administration, and had oligarchy itself not been the manner in which much of the West has been ruled for well over a century, where donors influence political parties from Ottawa to Canberra.

What is seemingly different this time, however, is how open and unapologetic the alliance is, as well as how apparently friendly it is, with both men often willingly photographed together in the Oval Office, and even sitting down for a televised joint interview this week. Even the man cynical to the core of the intentions of the new administration might concede that it is better for such alliances between the public and private sphere to be out in the open, rather than hidden in the shadows, as has been the norm for much of living memory.

An interesting question to pose, therefore, is whether there is an example in history of such a relationship that proved successful, or even beneficial for the country in question. For that, let us turn to Renaissance Italy, where before Elon Musk and the White House, there was Agostino Chigi and the Vatican…

---

But first — this summer we are hosting our first ever INVICTUS retreat, The History of Rome as Told by Its Heroes.

Renaissance busts — perhaps sponsored by Chigi?

If you want to explore the Rome of the Italian Renaissance and the Roman Empire, you do NOT want to miss this. Click here to learn more about the retreat and apply today.

---

The House of Chigi

Piazza del Campo, Siena, photograph taken by the author

Though a man of undisputed and extraordinary business acumen, it would be a severe exaggeration to say that in 1465, Agostino Chigi was born to modest circumstances.

After all, his father Mariano Chigi was an established banker and influential voice in the Republic of Siena, where the Chigi had indeed been a respected mercantile family since the 14th century.

Yet this was an age when the family business could aspire to international enterprise, when the republics of Italy began to be represented by, and then ruled by, merchant families. The Medici of neighbouring Florence had pioneered the notion of the banker-statesman, and Cosimo, the greatest of the elder Medici, had been dead barely a year when Agostino Chigi was born. Furthermore, the rule of Cosimo’s lauded grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent, would be the talk of enlightened Europe for the first thirty years of Agostino’s life.

Of course, the purely selfish pursuit of wealth was largely anathema to Renaissance Italy, where patronage of the arts and the beautification of one’s city was an essential clause of the social contract which held together the Italian states. Many of Italy’s finest monuments, from chapels to churches, palaces and piazze are indeed the fruit of this thinking.

It is fortunate, therefore, that Agostino Chigi became one of the wealthiest men who has ever lived in precisely this era, and as a result, left a material legacy of wonder that survives to this day.

---

All Business Leads to Rome

Marble medallion with the portrait of Agostino Chigi, Gianlorenzo Bernini, 1652

The details of Agostino’s most humble years are unclear. It appears, however, that upon coming of age, he worked as an apprentice to his father, in the branches of the Chigi business in both Siena and across the border in the Papal city of Viterbo.

Certainly, his ultimate test and breakthrough moment came in 1487 when Mariano dispatched his twenty two year old son to Rome to complete his learning at the bank of his compatriot Ambrogio Spanocchi. The opportunity to learn from one of the most influential financiers of the day was invaluable, but as is often the case, a certain alignment of the stars proved equally beneficial.

Just five years after Agostino’s arrival, the death of Pope Innocent VIII heralded the dawn of the Borgia era, with the election of Rodrigo Borgia as Pope Alexander VI in 1492. One of the most ambitious pontiffs in history, who believed as fervently in the temporal as the spiritual power of the Church, Alexander would gain praise and condemnation alike for his territorial expansion of the Papal State, and his unashamed use of family members to pursue it.

Chigi’s opening indeed came with this most controversial of policies. For chief among the Pope’s progeny was his second son, Cesare Borgia, who in 1499 pursued in earnest a series of campaigns to subdue the unruly lords of the Romagna. In the winter Cesare reached Bologna where, with the expenses of war mounting, he urgently requested a loan of 3,000 ducats.

Fortunately for the Sienese, the Pope, distrusting the Medici, had discarded them in favour of the Spanocchi as treasurers to the Apostolic Camera. As a result, the Borgia request passed beneath the eyes of Agostino who, seeing an unprecedented opportunity to earn the favour of court, immediately wrote to his father, imploring him to supply the credit. Following a rapid agreement between Mariano and Agostino, the money was released, and the Pope was much pleased.

---

The Wealthiest Man in Rome

“The Alum Mines of Tolfa”, Pietro da Cortona, c. 1640

It would not take long for the gratitude of the Pope to translate into favour, as the high spending of Alexander ensured Agostino was frequently needed.

Welcomed openly into the reins of power, he rapidly emerged as something of an economic advisor to Alexander, taking charge of both the customs policies and salt pans of the Papal States. At the same time, he firmly cemented himself as the Pope’s chief financial backer, with an enormous loan of 20,000 ducats in 1501.

This latter move would prove to be his true masterstroke — for a quite unlikely reason.