Conclusion 175
applied to Solothurn as well. This model of what Christian Windler has called
‘state-building without direct taxation or standing army’18 was only possible because
of the cities’ external commercial connections (including mercenary service) and
access to resources. For Fribourg the close relations with France enabled its merchants
to engage profitably in stock-rearing and cheese-mongering so long as it could
obtain the necessary salt from the Franche-Comté.19
Under a different sign the same held good for Protestant Bern. It received no
pensions from France, but by the mid-sixteenth century a quarter of the Bernese
Small Council enjoyed salt concessions in the Franche-Comté. These, strictly
speaking, were not pensions, for the recipients had to pay for the deliveries, but
they were granted substantial discounts.20 Both Edward Gibbon and Adam Smith
in their day observed the huge surpluses which Bern was able to achieve, though
both men censured the city for failing to invest the money productively: instead,
the Bernese elite became international bankers on a grand scale.
European historians have for some years advanced the concept of the ‘composite
state’ or ‘composite monarchy’ to describe regimes which do not fit the categories
of ‘nation’ or ‘nation-state’. In his recent survey of the Holy Roman Empire, for
instance, Peter Wilson steers a cautious path between those who regard it as
loosely organized and largely ineffective and others who see in the Empire the
onset of constitutional consolidation.21 Swiss historians are increasingly inclined
to emphasize the similarities, rather than the differences, between the Helvetic
Confederation and other composite states, thereby overcoming the frozen image
of Swiss exceptionalism, and they are now much more willing to consider Swiss
political development within the wider context of the Empire. That comparison
would gain greater traction if the word ‘state’ were dropped in favour of the more
neutral term ‘polity’, that is, a system of government or political organization
which does not presuppose an articulated ‘statehood’.22 The Swiss Confederation
was a functioning composite polity, but it was not a state—and of course it was
not a monarchy. Yet, though it affirmed its status as a republic, the Confederation
willingly embraced territories which retained a feudal-hierarchical structure, albeit
only as associated members. These included the abbacies of Engelberg and St Gallen,
the prince-bishopric of Basel, and the county of Neuchâtel (and later Valangin). At the
other end of the spectrum, Graubünden retained its essentially local-associative
18 Christian Windler, ‘ “Ohne Geld keine Schweizer”. Pensionen und Söldnerrekrutierung auf den
eidgenössischen Patronagemärkten’, in Hillard von Thiessen and Christian Windler (eds), Nähe in der
Ferne. Personale Verflechtung in den Außenbeziehungen der Frühen Neuzeit (Zeitschrift für historische
Forschung, Beiheft 36) (Berlin, 2005), 105–33, here at 107.
19 Holenstein, Mitten in Europa, 89. The dependence was starkly revealed in the early 18th century
when France imposed a blockade. Ibid., 91.
20 Windler, ‘ “Ohne Geld keine Schweizer” ’, 126–8. Only Zürich as a Protestant city held aloof
from such deals.
21 Wilson, Heart of Europe, passim. See also his useful review ‘Still a Monstrosity? Some Reflections
on Early Modern German Statehood’, Historical Journal, 49 (2006), 565–76.
22 See John Watts, The Making of Polities: Europe, 1300–1500 (Cambridge, 2009).