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Articles - The "SOLDO"
Only one common purpose could bring together such an assortment of army formations, and it was the soldo, or compensation. This also helps explain why a city-state’s military predominance often went hand in hand with its economic prosperity.
Contemporary sources depict an interesting portrait of some of the major city-states in 15th-century Italy:
Kingdom of Naples (Aragon): 800,000-1,000,000 ducats;
States of the Church: 300,000 florins (not including religious tributes);
Republic of Florence: revenue: 250,000-300,000 florins;
Republic of Venice: 1,000,000 ducats;
Duchy of Milan: 800,000 ducats (not including extra revenue);
Duchy of Savoy: 200,000-250,000 ducats.
As a result of repeated incidents of public and forced debt, some forms of economic centralization were sought within the army, along with a series of improvements in the Companies’ financial management which would eventually allow for a more efficient administration of all indirect taxes. As a consequence, a bureaucracy of public officials called "COLATERALI" was instituted as a support for the Condottiero to guarantee a more proficient control and logistic administration of the army.
A closer look at one of these armies - like Venice’s military forces, for example - will reveal some startling facts about contemporary defense-related expenses. In a period of peace like the winter of 1436, Venice’s army counted 6,000 knights and 3,000 infantrymen, while in a period of war – or, more precisely, in 1447, following the battle of Casalmaggiore (1446) - it had as many as 10,000 horses and 7,000 infantrymen. With an average monthly salary of 9-11 florins per spearman and 2-3 florins per infantryman, the town’s army could easily cost between 330,000 and 610,000 florins.
Of course, this did not include potential bonuses or payments due to individual commanders. Although wages were usually the result of negotiations between each city-state and the individual Condottieri, research reveals that in practice they averaged the following figures throughout the country: 7-11 florins a month for a cavalry spearman and 2-3 florins a month for an infantryman, not to mention PRESTANZA costs (small payment advances traditionally due at hiring), which could add up to a significant amount of money for each city-state. Starting from the second half of the century, salaries would vary in periods of peace and war. According to Sanudo, a contemporary chronicler, in 1439 Italian city-states incurred in the following expenses for their armies:
States of the Church: 4,200 horses/ 117,600 florins per year;
Republic of Venice: 16,100 horses / 643,920 florins per year;
Duchy of Milan: 19,750 horses / 789,960 florins per year;
Republic of Siena: 1,000 horses / 27,972 florins per year;
Republic of Florence: 3,000 horses / 120,000 florins per year;
Kingdom of Naples (Alfonso d'Aragona): 17,800 horses / 498,372 florins per year;
Clearly, defense-related expenses for each city’s cavalry division amounted to more than half of the city’s income. This did not include additional costs, like salaries for the infantry or the artillery (used for sieges), as well as maintenance and fortification costs. City-states did indeed try to decrease the economic pressure generated by their armies by cutting down on the number of soldiers recruited during periods of peace; however, maintaining a consistent infantry and cavalry division would still be necessary to preserve the town’s security. In addition these costs, city-states had to face further important expenses, related to the destruction or permanent loss of crops and fields, which - needless to say - would deeply affect the local economy. As a matter of fact, most conflicts at the time were mainly based on the destruction of lands and fields – and thus, of the local economy – and only occasionally involved bloody, brutal pitched battles.
