La financiación de las empresas mediterráneas de Alfonso el Magnánimo. Bailía General, Subsidios de Cortes y Crédito Institucional en Valencia (1419-1455)

Abstract

This article studies the role of the General Bailía of Valencia—the office for the management of the royal domain resources of the kingdom of Valencia- in the political and military projects of Alfonso V the Magnanimous in the Mediterranean. In this way its also analysed the role of the Parliament, a class representation of the kingdom, and the city of Valencia, main urban centre The incomes from the royal domain, the donations from the Parliaments as a representative assemblies, and the loans provided by the city of Valencia contributed in a decisive way to the guarantee of the economic viability of Alfonso Vs military expansion. It is right that the main instruments that the king had to apply his aggressive policy was, on the one hand, the centralized and complex organization around the General Treasure of the Crown of Aragon and, later on, to the Treasure of the Kingdom of Naples; on the other hand, to the solid banking infrastructure built around the Mediterranean. Therefore, both of them were based on the confidence and guaranties offered by the powerful ordinary and non ordinary tax structures of the kingdom, and the solid financial support given by the institutions of the kingdom.