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The Sustainable Debts of Philip II: A Reconstruction of Castile's Fiscal Position, 1566-1596

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  • Drelichman, Mauricio
  • Voth, Hans-Joachim

Abstract

The defaults of Philip II have attained mythical status as the origin of sovereign debt crises. We reassess the fiscal position of Habsburg Castile, deriving comprehensive estimates of revenue, debt, and expenditure from new archival data. The king’s debts were sustainable. Primary surpluses were large and rising. Debt/revenue ratios were broadly unchanged across Philip’s reign. Castilian finances in the sixteenth century compare favorably with those of other early modern fiscal states at the height of their imperial ambitions, including Britain. The defaults of Philip II therefore reflected short-term liquidity crises, and were not a sign of unsustainable debts.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by UBC Department of Economics in its series UBC Departmental Archives with number drelichman-07-11-06-09-33-37.

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Length: 38 pages
Date of creation: 06 Nov 2007
Date of revision: 08 Apr 2010
Handle: RePEc:ubc:bricol:drelichman-07-11-06-09-33-37

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Keywords: debt sustainability; serial defaults; early modern state finances;

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As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. December 3 Economic History Seminar: The Sustainable Debts of Philip II
    by Brad DeLong in Grasping Reality with the Invisible Hand on 2007-11-28 18:33:20
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Cited by:
  1. Drelichman, Mauricio & Voth, Hans-Joachim, 2009. "Lending to the Borrower from Hell: Debt and Default in the Age of Philip II, 1556-1598," CEPR Discussion Papers 7276, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  2. Gennaioli, Nicola & Voth, Hans-Joachim, 2011. "State Capacity and Military Conflict," CEPR Discussion Papers 8699, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  3. Joachim Voth & Mauricio Drelichman, 2008. "Debt sustainability in historical perspective: The role of fiscal repression," Economics Working Papers 1184, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
  4. Deconinck, Koen & Swinnen, Jo, 2012. "War, taxes and borders : how beer created Belgium," Open Access publications from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven urn:hdl:123456789/349303, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
  5. Drelichman, Mauricio & Voth, Hans-Joachim, 2011. "Serial defaults, serial profits: Returns to sovereign lending in Habsburg Spain, 1566-1600," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 1-19, January.

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