There is general consensus that tax havens have long played a major role in the evolution of the capitalist system on a global scale. There is also no doubt that Switzerland is one of the first, if not the first, tax haven to have emerged, as well as one of the most important in the world. However, knowledge and understanding of the history, particularly the distant past, of tax havens remains lacking, despite the considerable volume of literature devoted to them. Therefore, this article attempts to make two innovative contributions. The first is an attempt to explain the emergence of the Swiss tax haven, by analyzing the processes and factors whose intertwining led to its emergence. It thus improves the general understanding of the genesis of tax havens at an international level. The second contribution is to show that already on the eve of World War I, the Swiss Confederation possessed the necessary characteristics for a tax haven.

人们普遍认为，避税天堂长期以来一直在全球范围内资本主义制度的演变中发挥着重要作用。毫无疑问，瑞士是最早出现的避税天堂之一，也是世界上最重要的避税天堂之一。然而，尽管有大量文献专门研究避税天堂，但对避税天堂的历史，尤其是遥远的过去，知识和理解仍然缺乏。因此，本文试图做出两个创新贡献。第一个是试图通过分析相互交织导致其出现的过程和因素来解释瑞士避税天堂的出现。因此，它在国际层面提高了对避税天堂起源的一般理解。