4 - Government expense, 1550–1638

Summary

On 8 November 1595, Ferrante Fornaro signed a “Brief Budget of Income and Expense and of what is due to Merchants and the Militia.” The budget was sent to Spain, where no doubt it was carefully studied. Fornaro, after all, enjoyed a good reputation as fiscal expert at Court, and he was not new to the task of reporting on the condition of the exchequer. In 1592–93, furthermore, he had served as regent and fiscal advisor at the Spanish Court, and he had been entrusted with the sensitive task of reforming finances in the Kingdom. Immediately afterwards he had been sent to Naples as Sommaria Lieutenant, a prized and responsible position at the center of fiscal administration in the Kingdom.

Fornaro's budget is instructive, for it brings to light the difficult straits of the Neapolitan exchequer at the end of the sixteenth century. It projected income at about 2,500,000 ducats and expense at nearly 2,930,000 ducats. But even the sizable deficit, nearly 430,000 ducats, paled in comparison to debts due, which the Lieutenant assessed at about 1,950,000 ducats, or more than three-quarters of a full year's revenue. About a fifth of that sum, almost 340,000 ducats, consisted of arrears due the cavalry, infantry and galleys as of the end of October, the week before the budget was signed. The rest, over 1,600,000 ducats, was due to merchant bankers and had been assigned to them for payment on the next six years' proceeds from the Foggia Sheep Customhouse and from parliamentary aids.

As Figure 4.1 shows, the income side of the Lieutenant's ledger, structurally at least, presents few surprises.