ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses about the importance of financial markets in attracting more resources to Castile in the first decades of the sixteenth century. Castile had several types of debt and credit systems in place dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, while the Catholic kings continued with a new type of juros with more modern elements. The financial system of Castile was no exception from that of other countries. Consolidated debt was known in Castile and Europe before the financial revolution, and because of that the chapter examines medieval aspects to understand the financial system. During the first years of the sixteenth century, a short-term debt was consolidated in the form of annual credits to maintain the court and war campaigns, especially in Italy and North Africa. Finally, the chapter analyses the first public debt in both the traditional and modern systems.
