The Church and the money – who’s not thinking of the sale of indulgences and his angry critics in Wittenberg. Here it is not to go but to the trade with Indulgences, but the contribution of the papacy to the development of the modern state of credit. In fact, the Roman Church came in the 16th century. and 17. Century a pioneering role in the Development of financial instruments, the meadows, the consolidation of the state debt and of Rome were one of the most attractive financial centres in Europe. Critical to this success is the so-called Monti: (money, goods)mountains, as the top product from the Portfolio of the papal financial experts were and with interest rates of up to twelve percent of today’s investors are likely to be interested in.
At the beginning of this development, a financial crisis. On the one hand, both the Reformation, as well as the increasing refusal of the Catholic princes, all the money from its churches to the Curia’s remit, led to massive declines in the revenues of Rome. On the other hand, the tasks and ambitions of the popes grew: As head of the Church, they had areas of the dissemination of reformation Doctrines, and to the land, the Catholic powers in the religious fight to support the time and in the Wars of Europe against the Ottoman Empire. As the country men of the Church state, which included, in contrast to the Vatican city as its current loss level in the Early modern era the whole of Central Italy, they led wars against their neighbors. They built on the management in your territory, and you are provided with a construction and art program, the Rome-fruits-to rejoice, for the adequate representation of their rule.
All that cost a lot of money. Looking only at the output side, it is surprising, therefore, no way that the budget volume of the Pontifical household, from the year 1526 to the year 1667 swelled to nominally 443 percent of the value. But how is it on the revenue side, possible? The income from the world Church communication only sparsely, the papacy saw itself almost entirely on its own state and its sources of money thrown back. However, these revenues are far from adequate, and so only the path of the debt remained.
it was. Like all other rulers, the popes had already commenced prior to the year 1500 credit: usually short-term and always high-interest loans to individual bankers, to hedge in the Roman case, be had pledged the papal crown, the Tiara. Re-Release of this suspense was, however, of the debt into a consolidated debt. As the Foundation of this in-depth, duration and the Interest unusually reliable state loan, the issuance of government bonds, the Monti proved to be.
use of the capital not for the purpose
The Premiere 1526: Clement VII was , as a Scion of the Medici dynasty of Florence with the local banks and credit being familiar with, built with the Monte della Fede, the first “money mountain”: a state bond in the amount of 200,000 Scudi, the interest rate of ten percent, and thanks to the handy denomination in units of 100 or 50 Scudi for retail investors was attractive.
The distribution was already regulated in 1526, so efficient, that there should be no change to the basic patterns in later Monti-emissions, nothing more: The bond was sold en bloc to a banker, whereby the Curia was able to immediately dispose of the money. This banker was the role of the Depositary and, therefore, the distribution of the shares and the payment of the interest, the decency, every two months. Covered the Interest was due to the fixed assignment of a tax or other revenue source, over which the popes in the papal States had. And because the returns on these sources of money have been transferred, in the case of the Monte della Fede of a Roman Binnenzolls directly to the Depositary of the Monte, were the interest payments generally on time and reliable. No wonder, then, that the Monti were asked: The number of papal bonds grew up in the 1680s years to 71, the capital, the introducing of the Curia increased from 5.6 million Scudi in the year 1592, to more than 15 million in the year 1619, and to 28 million in the year 1657.
