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Full Description
This is a study of the financial system that sustained the sixteenth-century empire of Philip II of Spain. Detailing the links between royal revenue sources, trade fairs, credit market, long-term debt, and contracts with Genoese bankers, it reveals how Philip's financial and military strategy complemented each other. Central to the narrative is Philip's struggle with the Cortes, which, under Castile's implicit constitution, imposed limits on public debt, forcing repeated renegotiations as military expenses and debt escalated. In this first analytical study of Philip's financial policies, Carlos Álvarez-Nogal and Christophe Chamley draw on extensive archival research and secondary sources to show that Philip's main challenge was not the bankers but the Cortes. He used temporary payment suspensions and financial crises as tools to pressure the Cortes for additional taxation. The book highlights the interplay between debt, political power, and state formation in early modern Europe.
Contents
Introduction; Part I. Castile in the 16th Century: Markets, Banks and Credit: 1. Castilian cities, Habsburgs, and bankers; 2. The fairs of Medina del Campo; 3. The public banks of Castile; 4. The administration of the royal finances; 5. Royal revenues in Castile; 6. The long-term debt: the juros; 7. Crecimientos: reducing the yields of juros; 8. A model for the public finances in Castile; Part II. The First Years: Triumphant Battles with the Pope, France, the Bankers and the Cortes: 9. The young prince and the financial weapon; 10. First test: the 1557 debt restructuring and the war; 11. The 1560 Cortes: a new relationship; Part III. The Sixties: Turning to the South While the North was Brewing: 12. The bull of the crusade; 13. Taxation in the low countries; 14. The short-term debt: the asientos before 1575; 15. Financing the construction of the Escorial with factorias; Part IV. The Main Confrontation with the Cities and the Crisis of 1575-77: 16. Obstruction in the Cortes (1572-1575); 17. Acceleration towards the crisis: 1575; 18. The Decreto of 1575; 19. The crisis in the credit market; 20. War of attrition between the crown and the cities (1576-77); 21. Resolution; Part V. The Latter Part of the Reign: 22. Financing in Flanders; 23. Exploiting the Armada's disaster: the millones; 24. The Fiesco asiento: from fountains in Castile to streams in Flanders; 25. Mesadas with an option to refinance in juros: the maluenda asiento; 26. The renewal of the service of millones and the decree of 1596; 27. The resolution of the last crisis; Acknowledgments ; Archives; Bibliography; Index.
