Credit Finance in the Middle Ages: Loans to the English Crown, 1272-1340

The project investigated the credit arrangements of a series of English kings (Edwards I, II and III) with a number of Italian merchant societies (mainly but not exclusively the Ricciardi of Lucca, the Frescobaldi of Florence, and the Bardi and Peruzzi of Florence) between 1270 and 1345. The key research questions were: how important was credit to the functioning of the medieval English government and how these credit relationships were managed; what happened in cases of default and why merchants continued to lend following previous defaults; and whether interest was charged.<br> <br> The project has made a number of original contributions to the understanding of medieval sovereign borrowings. It suggested a more nuanced account of the sovereign defaults that occurred in this period; established a more robust methodology for calculating interest rates than currently used by historians; and demonstrated how pan-European credit systems facilitated ‘cashless’ methods of business and trade.<br>