中世纪欧洲贵金属匮乏的现实刺激金融体系作出应对性变革,先后革新出多种形式的筹资手段。为满足个人消费,地主阶层首先推出抵押地产的现金贷款,后发展为抵押地产收益的年金贷款。自治城市时常面临财政上的入不敷出,被迫以发行公共债券的方式谋求筹资。14世纪以后集权制君主政府的普遍肇建同样扩大了财富需求,除税收和私人贷款外,君主政府也尝试发行债券以募资,但随着君主权威的膨胀,政府债券往往蜕变为强制贷款而备受诟病。在商业领域,北意大利商人施用契约式的合伙关系(康曼达),并在此基础上沿革出更为完善的合伙公司“康帕吉尼亚”。大商人公司则以造船业中的“洛卡”为基础沿革出服务远程贸易的“股份制”,后被其他部门效仿。股份制由南向北传播到德意志、尼德兰和英格兰,最终催生出成熟的现代股份公司。
The shortage of previous metals in Europe which stimulated the financial system to transform itself. European so-ciety has innovated many kinds of financing means. The landlord class implemented a kind of cash debt with the estate forpawn firstly , in order to serve for their personal consumption, and then be developed into a kind of annuity debt. Becauseof more and more fiscal expenditure, the medieval towns prefer to implement public credit to get the cash. The absolutistmonarch governments were built after 14thcentury and expanded the demand for wealth. The monarch governments tried toissue the bonds for financing, except for revenue and personal loans. But with the expansion of the sovereign authority, thegovernment bonds had been changed into a kind of forcible loan and always be resisted by folks. In business, The mer-chants of north Italy adopted the Commanda firstly , then the Commanda was reformed to be a more outstanding partnershipcompany, “Compangnia”. Some great merchant companies had innovated a kind of “ Share Company” to serve for long-distance trade with the basis of “Locum” that once was popular in shipbuilding. The share company was also imitated byother activity and be spread to Germany, the Netherlands and England, eventually developed into mature modern joint-stock company system.