A ‘Magnificent’ military entrepreneur? The involvement of the Medici Bank in the arms trade (1482-1494)
通过分析商业账目和公共记录，揭示美第奇银行在15世纪军事工业中的角色，探讨洛伦佐·德·美第奇如何利用政府业务谋取私利，并重新评估美第奇政权的军事组织。
Sifting through business accounts and public records, this article demonstrates the involvement of Medici Bank in the military industry of the fifteenth century, shedding new light on the final years of one of the most important companies in Renaissance Italy. By restating the relation between the public role and the private business of Lorenzo the Magnificent, this article emphasises the exploitation of government operations for his economic gain as well as the use of the family business for his political purposes – in this case, the consolidation of the new, permanent military institutions of the Florentine Republic. Developing this point further, the entire military organisation of the Medicean regime, traditionally assessed as haphazard and inefficient, is re-evaluated. Finally, this article contributes to the current debate on the military entrepreneurship of the preindustrial world, focussing on the cooperation between state administration and capitalist elites in supplying the materiel indispensable to early modern armies.