How did most Italian city-states come to be dominated by wealthy merchants during the Renaissance?

Question

How did most Italian city-states come to be dominated by wealthy merchants during the Renaissance?

Answer 1

Because - unlike the rest of Europe at the time - these people were the elite of society.

Unlike Europe, there was no landed aristocracy in Italy.  Partly this was because the medieval time was distinctively different for this area....Italy was greatly urbanized, and at a time when you could escape feudal bonds by residing in a city for a certain length of time, a high rate of urbanization meant it was easy to escape feudal bonds for many.  Hence,. feudalism did not catch on.

Also, this wealthy elite had an extraordinary amount of wealth,

compared to other European merchants, or even royalty.

(The city of Genoa's government, for example, was three times that of the king of France.)  This great amount of economic power was easy to translate into political power.

Answer 2

There was a division among the people: artisans, millers, merchants, etc...  They formed unions and held to their beliefs.  It was still a time of aristocracy.