Agents of firearms supply in sixteenth-century Italy: rethinking the contractor state

Fletcher, Catherine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2055-154X (2022) Agents of firearms supply in sixteenth-century Italy: rethinking the contractor state. In: Working in the Shadows of War in Renaissance Europe. Renaissance History, Art and Culture . Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 9789463721356 (hardback); 9789048553327 (ebook)

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Abstract

This chapter investigates the people and organizations involved in the supply of firearms for military use in sixteenth-century Italy, as guns became a key technology in European warfare. Agents of supply ranged from gunmakers (including the Beretta firm) to ropemakers, from bankers to customs officials, from city captains to leatherworkers and scrap metal dealers. Through a 'bottom-up' exploration of this chain of supply and maintenance, considering both formal and informal processes, it offers new perspectives on the functioning of the contractor state. It argues that the state’s ability to purchase arms effectively depended on local patrons and connections and that the contractor state's development should be considered across the space spanned by supply chains as well as over time.