ABSTRACT
In the mid-sixteenth century, the commercial and financial companies of Castile managed to firmly establish themselves as one of the most prosperous entrepreneurial networks of Europe. Their presence in the principal European cities and trade fairs (Antwerp, Bruges, Lyon, Florence, etc.) is an example of the capacity achieved by the Castilian merchants beyond their own frontiers. Similarly, commercial businesses were growing during the first half of the sixteenth century in the Iberian Peninsula, boosting economic integration and commercial networks. The objective of this work is to understand the principles upon which the commercial and financial companies of Castile were built, the reasons that enabled these institutions, in just over half a century, to become powerful organizations; and also to explore the strategies developed by merchants and bankers in order to be able to grow in a regional and international environment where competition was continually on the increase.
