In this paper I have tried to determine some essential points regarding the evolution of the Neapolitan public debt in the early modern age. In brief, these are:

1. The Kingdom of Naples had recourse to the public debt from the beginning of the early modern age, in line with the development of the public debt in the most economically dynamic areas of Europe;

2. Until the beginning of the eighteenth century, recourse to the public debt was closely connected to the political and financial demands of the Spanish monarchy of which Naples was part; at the same time, the public debt, especially that part ascribable to the communities, not only fed a flourishing domestic financial market, but was also an important point of contact and equilibrium between the classes that were most active economically and between these classes and the state;

3. The recovery of the Kingdom of Naples' political independence in the eighteenth century can be seen in the adoption of an independent financial policy regarding both the public debt and the regulation of the financial market;

4. The changes which took place during the eighteenth century, and especially from the beginning of the nineteenth century with the vast operation of consolidating the public debt during the decade of French rule, mark important moments in the modernization of the Neapolitan financial market, in its links with the network of big European finance and in the emergence of new operators.

In the Spanish Imperial System

The concept of the ‘Spanish Imperial’ system – a definition used more by early modern historians than by economic historians – embodies the idea that between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries a multiplicity of institutional, political, military, religious and economic-financial ties united the lands of the Spanish monarchy, surmounting its inherent differences and giving rise to a single body with a fair degree of cohesion. However, historians interpret this concept in very different ways, ranging from the classical interpretations of the polisinodiale monarchy by Jaime Vicens Vives and the composite monarchy by John Elliot to other more recent publications.