I enjoyed reading The Verge by P. Wyman https://www.amazon.com/Verge-Reformation-Renaissance-Forty-Y...
It describes changes that happened in war, mining, shipping, trade in (mostly western) Europe in the last decades of XV century. The common theme is finance and it includes a chapter on how bank houses became bigger and could secure much bigger loans (which allowed bigger states to wage wars, or rich individuals to bid for top titles ;)).
Fun read.