Warfare and Economy in Renaissance Italy, 1350–1450

Abstract

The well-known cycle of plague and famine in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italy coincided with continuous and expensive warfare. These wars, largely ignored by scholars, had important economic consequences for the peninsula, reallocating resources on both the state and individual level. The spending habits of soldiers suggest, albeit tentatively at this stage, a “Renaissance” penchant for conspicuous consumption and display.