Politics, Investments and Public Spending in Bologna (End of 13th – First Half of 14th Century)

Not all major Italian cities of the late Middle Ages could rely on an established and organised system of public debt like Florence, Venice, Genoa, and others. The study of one such city, Bologna, reveals that whenever the city found itself in serious financial straits, outside of ad hoc impositions, it found a solution for financing public expenditure in the credit of private individuals. In Bologna during the communal period (1288–1327), loans seem to have been an investment reserved for the elite of the ruling pars; by contrast, some additional data on loans to the commune during the period of the Visconti lordship (1350–1360) seem to indicate how this form of financing was a way to make the Bolognese participate in the redistribution of public money through the interest received on the loans. Moreover, data concerning tax farmers highlight the complex interaction of Bolognese society in the tax system, where a part of society decided to invest regularly in the management of indirect taxes.