Public Debt in Late Medieval Crown of Aragon: A(Nother) Financial Revolution?

The main objective of this chapter is to place the complex phenomenon of public debt in the Crown of Aragon at the end of the Middle Ages within the general historiographic context. The origins and development of public debt have aroused enormous interest during the last decades among historians, who have considered this financial resource as a fundamental factor in explaining the economic and political evolution of Western Europe since the medieval period. The Aragonese case, however, has had little resonance in the general historiography, probably because the Crown of Aragon—apparently—did not correspond to the models deemed as successful (Italy, Holland, England), which has usually been associated with the first issuance of public debt. This relative ignorance contrasts with the numerous studies published in recent years in Spain on the subject (basically, in the territories of the former crown) and also with the hypotheses formulated by some authors, who find clear parallels between the Aragonese and the Italian case, Dutch or English. Taking as reference these studies, this article aims to retrace the origins and the main treats of the public debt consolidated in the Crown of Aragon and to examine similar patterns in order to integrate the case into the general historical account.