The first issue of annuities by the Diputación of the kingdom of Aragon (1376–1436): raising capital and sovereign debt in the Middle Ages

ABSTRACT This article presents new data on the kingdom of Aragon’s issue of sovereign debt 25 years earlier than the point at which there is routine documentation. The primary focus of this study is to examine how the representative institutions of this territory within the Crown of Aragon undertook the task of raising capital in financial markets. Contrary to a well-established historiographical perspective, this inland kingdom of the Iberian Peninsula and a supra-local political body called the Diputación employed advanced financial instruments that were used in major cities along the Mediterranean coast, and managed to attract investors. A chronological survey is undertaken of the evolution of this debt and how it shaped the kingdom’s relationship to the monarchy, seeking to meet royal demands for extraordinary funding. This study of the management of public debt sheds light on deep structural changes that encompassed fiscality, the creation of new institutions and self-government.