How effectively did Philip II manage his finances? Essay

The fiscal statistics of Philips reign would overwhelmingly conclude that he completely failed to effectively negotiate his pay. His transmitted debts had increased tercefold during his reign, and subsequently, the Crown say unsuccessful person no less than three times. In contrast to this charm, it can be argued that Philip was effective as cold as he was equal. His mishap was non collectable to incompetence for certainly, he do attempts to castigate the situation, but instead due to the legion(predicate) impossibilities that surrounded the magnificent Finance.Philips futile approach to relegateling Finance is gener everyy summed up by saying that as ruler of the Monarquia, he was never able to match his income to his extortionate expenditure. This pricy insurance policy was due to the amount of m peerlessy reinforcement war. Travelling costs, continuous updating of armaments and issue of soldiers consumed the vast bulk of Philips pay. plane this failed at ti mes, as seen by the disgust of the unpaid soldiers in the Netherlands. Philips conglomerate was so extensive that he was called upon to go to war in the interests of many distinguishable nations. His wars were not all territorial, much(prenominal) as the defence of Italian lands, his own dynastic interests in France and England had to be defended, as did the Catholic morality against the Turks. Philip was in addition drawn into costly civil wars. As a result, Royal money was frequently spent all over the Monarquia, and often on places that were not raising the money.This again reflects Philips bad watchfulness of finance whereupon countries could not be relied upon to be self-sufficient or contribute to wars fought on behalf of the entire Monarquia. The result of this was that Castile bore the brunt of the exertion to storehouse the Monarquia. This was an unreasonable burden, as Castile take up neither the wealth, the manpower or the economical strength demanded off it. This policy of Philip still proves his ill-managed Royal finances. Such heavy tax income income on one part of the Monarquia exclusively sent Castile into steady decline. Instead of beingness a successfully self- championed land, Castile began to heavily think on outside imports, increasing the venture of further inflation, a threat that remained since its bombardment early in Philips reign passim his inherited lands.Philips highly infective attention is rein force by his failure to set up out of debt despite increased r up to nowue. coin from the wealthy Americas boosted the wealth of Castile, as did the revenue from the Indies. Philip also increased finance through with(predicate) taxation, which hindquartersfired, and through borrowing money. Philip was forced into negotiating multiform loans with moneylenders that would allow him to continue paying back old debts while receiving fresh ones. However, even this was not enough to keep Philip from greatly failing finan cially, and declaring bankruptcy in 1557, 1575 and at last in 1596. The 36 million Ducat debts that he inherited became 68 million Ducats by the end of his reign. The diabolical state of finance was not helped by the grandiose modus vivendi of the King, who maintained the mentality of the ever- classical prestige display. Moreover, Philip failed to be interested in Fiscal matters, and appeared to frame plans without winning the care to cost them through.Philip seemed to have greatly failed to be efficient on handling Royal finances. However, an opposite view could argue that Philip made the best of a bad situation. For example, he managed to re-stabilise finance after(prenominal) the bankruptcies. Philip was initially dealt a bad hand by inheriting both a great debt and an extended empire from his father. This would have in mind a need for further finance, and Philip was today go about to raise this form a minus figure. Moreover, the increased lands now tagged as Philips Mo narquia, would involve extended foreign war involvement, and in turn, war expenditure. The need to go to war in the interests of his inherited lands was forced upon the new ruler. fight came with the territory, and the territory came with the inheritance.Philip had no choice in defending both his territories and his religion so the increased expenditure that resulted in bankruptcy was arguably inevitable and out of Philips control. Moreover, it is important to remember that the first declaration of bankruptcy was a further inheritance of Philip from his father, Charles I. Philip was faced with more difficulties from the outset of his reign. Inflation was taking hold in many countries crosswise Europe, forcing Philip to find increasing amounts of money to fund both the running of government and also war expenditure. Moreover, territories such as the Netherlands that has antecedently provided great income for Charles, became a drain on finances. The Netherlands then, revolted against Philip and instead of contributing to the Royal finance, Philip was forced to spend increasing amounts combating the rebels.It is also displace that Philip attempted to address the problem of explosive finances. The reorganisation of the departments of Finance was undertaken in send to increase efficiency. Philip was also effective in increasing revenue during his reign, albeit mostly in Castile. New taxes were introduced and old ones modified so that the wars of Spain could be funded. The alacabala for instance, tripled in it yield by the end of Philips reign. Custom duties were effectively reorganised so that they were received directly by the Crown instead of the old mode whereby tax farmers would retain a estimable proportion of the money collected. The cruzda was introduced by the church building to fund the wars against the Turks, and this too was effective by doubling its yield. Another new tax was effectively introduced to tax church property, furthering Philips incom e. The subsido an animate tax was equally successful in increasing its revenue.Evidence of Philips effective policies involving finance are reflected in the decrease of firm expenditure during his reign. This shows that Philip has recognised the responsibility he had to improve the state of Royal finance. This could be considered impressive due to the mentality that Philip, and other Kings of this period, were fixed in. This was the age in which religion and national prestige far outweighed the sine qua non to deal with Finance.It can convincingly be argued then, that Philip was a highly overworked King who made the best of a bad situation. He attempted, with limited personal time and resources, to manage the situation, and did so with reasonable success. Certainly he was effective in the matters which he did change, such as taxation. It can be verbalize that financial failure was inevitable and that is was unacceptable for Philip to effectively succeed in redress control of r oyal finance. I support this view as a far more realistic and pragmatic one than the opposing view which argues that Philip failed to deal with the inherent problems of Royal Finance. Instead he ignore opportunities to effectively reform finance so that bankruptcy was caused several times, indicated ultimately his failure to manage finance.