Ok so i have a project about the renaissance well banking during the renaissance any on know any info?ok well i have to do a project about banking/trade during the renaissance and i am stuck i cant find any thing. does any one know any thing about the stuff please help. any websites... anything |
Mostly it was "houses" who provided the banking during the renaissance. During the renaissance, banking was modernized and the Old Testament injunctions against lending began to fall by the wayside. Bills of exchange, instruments of credit, and gold (especially the florin of Florence and ducat of Venice) all came to the forefront. Florence was the banking capital because it had the most powerful families, it was located along trade routes, and it was the birthplace of the renaissance culture.
Bardi was the first and most prominent banking house. The pope used the Bardi house to collect papal taxes and transfer money to Rome. This house collapsed after King Edward III of England refused to make payments on the loans he took out to fund the Hundred Years' War.
Jacob the Rich was a European banker who lent money to heads of state. He established himself in Austria where he expanded his family business by investing in the East India spice trade. He loaned money to princes and monarchs at enormously high interest rates and reaped the profits. He loaned money to Albrecht of Brandenburg to secure the archbishophric of Mainz which triggered Martin Luther's protests against usury (sparking the Reformation). He also loaned money to Charles V to give out as bribes so Charles could gain the papacy.
The Medici's are the most famous banking family during the Renaissance. They were cloth manufacturers and took power of Florence after the Black Plague and failed invasions by Naples and Milan. The Medici's ran Florence and patronized the most famous works of art from the Renaissance. They loaned money to the city to keep it going when it was financially struggling, loaned money to prominent families (to allow them to keep their prestige and also to be obligated to him in the future). They had a vast banking empire and had many branches in Geneva, Rome, Venice, Naples, Avignon, London, Milan, and Pisa. They didn't give breaks on loans to the papacy or to royalty. The Medicis made the pope give them a controlling interest in alum mines in Italy as security for the loans they held.
Theres a lot of good info out there, I would just look to study the Medici and you will have plenty to learn. The Bardi and Peruzzi houses were precursors to what the Medici refined in the renaissance.
