Abstract

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.

摘要

本文通过对商业账户和公共记录的筛选，展示了美第奇银行在 15 世纪军事工业中的参与，为意大利文艺复兴时期最重要的公司之一的最后几年提供了新的视角。通过重申伟大的洛伦佐 (Lorenzo the Magnificent) 的公共角色与私营企业之间的关系，本文强调了利用政府运作谋取经济利益以及利用家族企业实现其政治目的——在这种情况下，巩固了佛罗伦萨共和国新的永久性军事机构。进一步发展这一点，美第奇政权的整个军事组织，传统上被认为是随意和低效的，现在被重新评估。最后，