Three Territorial State Experiences

This chapter examines public credit and political representation in three European territorial states: France, Castile, and Holland. It tackles the following question: If having a representative assembly with strong control over finance had major advantages, then why could territorial states not emulate the institutions present in their city-state neighbors? The chapter first considers the early history of the rentes sur l'Hôtel de Ville and how it set the stage for the French monarchy's frequent difficulty in later obtaining access to credit. It then discusses absolutism in Castile and Castilian public credit in the seventeenth century, along with representative assemblies in the Dutch Republic. The experience of France, Castile, and the Dutch Republic shows that most territorial states faced obstacles in establishing an intensive form of political representation, and thus in gaining access to credit.