From the Fuggers to the Fuggers? Can a sovereign public finance system exist in our generation? : Editor-in-Chief ’s Welcome

Abstract

The Thirty Years’ War is also referred to as the world war of the 17 th century by historical science; it was one of the most devastating conflicts in Europe. Larger destruction was later caused only by the Napoleonic Wars, and even later by the First and Second World Wars. Although the Thirty Years’ War is usually referred to as a war of religion based on the unrest between Catholics and Protestants, the main fault lines ran within the Holy Roman Empire between imperial power, striving for strengthening, and the prince-electors challenging absolutism, while the Habsburgs and the Bourbons were each other’s rivals for European hegemony. The effects of the Thirty Years’ War include changes in state organisation and finance, which were brought about by the need for larger, better trained and better equipped armies of mercenaries. The 1648 Peace of Westphalia, ending the Thirty Years’ War, has been kept in historical memory as it gave way to the emergence of sovereign states. However, the most significant effect was the recognition of the fact that fighting wars and gaining power and economic influence required a robust public finance system, or, if it did not exist, banks which financed the war infinitely. That is, military success did not depend so much on the heroism and valour of soldiers but rather on the quality of the equipment of the army and the abundance of the resources in the state’s coffers backing them or the loans taken out by the state.