Treaties with Milan: from the capitoli to the Capitolato of 1639

The capitoli of the Sforza period

The trade between the Confederates and Milan rested on a series of treaties that the German-language literature calls the Mailänder Kapitulate and the Italian literature the capitoli or capitolati di Milano.¹ The first of them was the settlement of 1426, which followed the conflicts over the Leventina and Bellinzona, and peace treaties and renewals followed throughout the fifteenth century. Under the Sforza dukes, who sought peace on their northern border, the capitulations of 1467 and 1477 and the peace of 1479/1480, which followed the battle of Giornico, set the pattern for the next two centuries.² Their clauses can be grouped under four headings. The first was the security of persons and goods: merchants of each side were placed under the protection of the other, could travel freely and were exempted from reprisals for debts or crimes of their compatriots. The second was the tariff: the Confederates' goods were exempted from certain Milanese duties or subjected to reduced rates within a defined zone, and in return the Confederates undertook not to raise their tolls on Milanese goods. The third was supply: Milan undertook to provide for the Confederates' supply of food, above all grain from the Po valley, and of salt. The fourth was jurisdiction: the treaties regulated the legal proceedings of Confederates in the Duchy of Milan.³

The best-known privilege was the exemption of the Confederates' goods from Milanese tolls up to the city of Milan. The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland describes it as toll freedom "up to the moat" of Milan (bis an den Stadtgraben), which meant that goods of the Confederates paid no Milanese transit duty on the way to the capital and paid only the city's own duties when they entered it.⁴ The privilege was valuable for the cattle trade and for the purchase of grain, which is why it was jealously defended. Every Milanese attempt to introduce new duties, to tighten the control of goods at the border or to extend the salt and tobacco monopolies was met by Confederate protests that it violated the capitulations.

From the French interlude to the Spanish alliance

The capitulations survived the changes of sovereignty over Milan. During the French domination of the Duchy (1499–1512 and 1515–1521), the King of France confirmed the Confederates' commercial privileges, first in the treaties of the Italian wars and then in the Perpetual Peace of Fribourg of 29 November 1516. The Perpetual Peace ended the war that had culminated at Marignano in 1515, left the territories of today's Ticino in Confederate hands (Mendrisio from 1521) and renewed the privileges of Swiss merchants in the Duchy of Milan and at the fairs of Lyon.⁵ Chapter A.II discusses the territorial clauses. For the trade, the confirmation of the old privileges by a new sovereign was the decisive point: it established that the capitulations were attached to the relationship between the Confederacy and the Duchy, whoever ruled it.

After 1535 Milan passed to the Spanish Habsburgs, who governed it through a governor until 1706. Spain confirmed the capitulations and extended them, in the alliance concluded with the Catholic cantons in 1587, into a political and military partnership. The alliance gave Spain the right to recruit troops in the Catholic cantons and to march them over the passes. In return the cantons received pensions, grain and trading privileges in the Duchy.⁶ The Protestant cantons were excluded from the alliance but continued to invoke the older capitulations for their merchants. The alliance was renewed several times during the seventeenth century. Its commercial clauses, known together as the Mailänder Kapitulat, remained the legal basis of the trade until the end of the Spanish period.⁷

Notes

1. HLS, art. "Mailänder Kapitulate" (as above), which counts 19 capitulations; Italian version, art. "Milano, capitolati di", http://www.hls-dhs-dss.ch/textes/i/I17199.php. ↩
2. HLS, art. "Mailänder Kapitulate" (as above), which lists peace treaties of 1426, 1441, 1479 and 1503 and renewals in 1450, 1467, 1477, 1483, 1496, 1498, 1512, 1533 and 1552; HLS, art. "Leventina" (as above), dates the peace with Uri to 1480. ↩
3. HLS, art. "Mailänder Kapitulate" (as above), on toll freedom, the supply of grain and salt and the regulation of legal proceedings. The clauses on safe conduct and reprisals. ↩
4. HLS, art. "Mailänder Kapitulate" (as above): merchants "bis an den Stadtgraben von Mailand keinen Zoll zu bezahlen hatten". ↩
5. HLS, art. "Paix perpétuelle" (André Holenstein, French translation Pierre-G. Martin), https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/008898/. See Chapter A.II. ↩
6. HLS, art. "Spagna" (as above); HLS, art. "Mailänder Kapitulate" (as above), on the extension of the capitulation of 1587 into an alliance between Spain and the Catholic cantons. ↩
7. HLS, art. "Spagna" (as above), for the renewals of 1604, 1634 and 1705; HLS, art. "Mailänder Kapitulate" (as above), which also lists 1664 and 1702 and states that the capitulation of 1705 remained in force only until 1706. ↩

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 August 2025.