Florentine Public Finances in the Early Renaissance, 1400-1433

by Anthony Molho

Overview

In his application of statistical methods to history, Mr. Molho offers a new approach to the study of Florentine politics.

Scholars have long recognized that Florence’s deficit-financing of its wars of independence against the Visconti of Milan had far-reaching economic, political, and social effects, but this is the first document-based history to provide concrete support for that general knowledge.

Focusing on the governmental and fiscal agencies of Florence as well as a number of memoirs and account hooks written by Florentine citizens, Mr. Molho has gathered and statistically reconstructed much archival material on Florentine taxation, public income, and expenses.

He concludes that between 1423 and 1433 Florence underwent a prolonged and vast fiscal crisis that affected both the fiscal structure of the city and its constitutional and institutional framework. His work thus sheds new light on Cosimo de’ Medici’s rise to power in 1434.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674306653
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1971
Series:	Harvard Historical Monographs , #65
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 7.25(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Anthony Molho is Associate Professor of History, Brown University.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations and Monetary Equivalences

Introduction

Communal Expenditures: Mercenaries and the Public Debt

Communal Income: Taxes on the Contado and the Gabelles

Forced Loans

Administrative and Economic Effects of Heavy Taxation

The Fiscal Crisis, 1431-1433

Conclusion

Appendices

A. The Records of the Camera del Comune—Provveditori—Entrata e Uscita

B. Folio References in the PCUB for Principal Items of Income and Expenditure, 1402-1433

C. General Expenditures in the Budget of 1401

D. Rate of Fiorino di Suggello in Moneta di Piccoli (Silver Sous and Deniers), 1389-1432

E. Creditors of the Ufficiali del Banco, November 27, 1427 to June 14, 1434

F. The Ufficiali del Banco, 1427-1433