1. General remarks
In the 16th century, few states contracted long-term debts (Credit). The earliest notable exceptions were certain city states and Spain; Venice already had a permanent public debt by the late 12th century. By the end of the 17th century, this was true almost everywhere [4. 22–37]. Even the public debt of Venice, which had been carefully managed up to 1600, rocketed in the 17th century (1641: 8 mil…