Appendix II - The sources

Summary

At the end of 1594, a curious incident occurred in the relations between Naples and Madrid. It was emblematic of the difficulties and confusion that some of the most useful sources for the history of state finance can engender, and one worth relating, for it may help illuminate and resolve them.

At that time, three budgets for 1592–93 reached the Spanish Court from Naples. One was a summary document, prepared by Ferrante Fornaro, head of the Sommaria. The others were full-scale budgets drawn up, as was customary, by the Sommaria staff accountants and dated, respectively, October 1592 and April 1594. The documents were examined in the Council of Italy, and on 23 February 1595, a rather stiff royal letter containing fifty-seven headings of “doubts that have arisen…in the discussion and auditing of said budgets” was sent to Naples.

The Sommaria's two texts, the royal letter complained, were both forecast records drawn up to estimate the forthcoming year's income and expense (por arbitrio). They were late, for they had reached the Court at a time when the actual record (evacuatión, or verifica) for 1592–93, the forecast and actual budgets for 1593–94 and the forecast for 1594–95 should have arrived. Not only that, but the April 1594 budget was superfluous. When it was drawn up, in fact, the royal letter continued, “there was nothing to forecast, the year having passed and the income, charges and expenses being certain and done with for months…”