Money, Credit and Public Finance in the Late Medieval City — conclusion

Conclusion

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the citizens of Basel built the financial institutions of a self-governing city. They kept annual accounts from 1360 onwards, financed their city through consumption taxes, and occasionally through wealth taxes, and borrowed extensively on a regional annuity market by selling life annuities and redeemable rents secured on the city's revenues. They used the same instrument for private credit, secured on houses, from which the Swiss mortgage note descends. They established a central warehouse and customs house, the Kaufhaus, and in 1504 a municipal exchange, the Stadtwechsel, one of the first public banks in the German-speaking area.

These institutions rested on trust, on the transparency of the city's accounts and on the identity between the rulers and the creditors of the city. They made Basel a reliable borrower and a well-administered city, even if its government remained oligarchic. The next chapter examines the event that, for two decades, placed this provincial city at the centre of European affairs: the Council of Basel.

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.

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