Conflicts, Financial Innovations, and Economic Trends in the Italian States during the Thirty Years’ War

Under the pressure of war finance by the Spanish empire, the cities of Milan and Genoa responded with financial innovations that made up an early financial revolution in the period 1550–1617. The innovations included the progressive substitution of bond issues for compulsory loans, the rise of a lively demand for state securities due to the earmarking of future tax income for interest payment, their easy transferability and their tax-free status. The Genoese further created an offshore capital market with its own currency of account. More municipal and business organizations participated in the expanded market for credit that arose from the usefulness of sovereign debt as collateral for private financial ventures. New forms of business enterprise emerged to take advantage of the expanded sources of finance.