Naples, 1629: Bureaucracy, War Finance and the “Renaissance State”

Abstract

This essay examines the financial situation of the Kingdom of Naples in 1629 through an analysis of the state budget for that year. It details the difficult condition of the exchequer in Naples on the cusp of the economic crisis of the seventeenth century and of the all-consuming hostilities of the Thirty Years’ War. It highlights the idiosyncratic link between bureaucracy and warfinance in Naples and shows that strong elements of tradition and innovation were tightly entwined in the workings of the “Renaissance state”.