Bardi

At the beginning of its activities, Bardi Trading House was engaged in the purchase, processing and resale of foreign cloth, combining this with banking and usurious operations. Subsequently, banking operations came to the fore.

For almost half a century of its activity, the House of Bardi worked closely with the house of Peruzzi , who was engaged in the same business. Being completely independent companies, Bardi and Peruzzi jointly acted in especially large enterprises, forming a kind of cartel .

“Bardi and Peruzzi are trading decisively for everything that promises them good profits, decisively everywhere where this profit can be obtained, they are mainly engaged in usurious operations, especially risky, but also especially profitable.”

- Gukovsky M.A. Italian Renaissance. - L., 1990

Having gained a reputation of successful businessmen, Bardi and Peruzzi attract capital of thousands of small enterprises, companies and individuals for their projects. At the same time, these funds are not included in the fixed capital of the company and the distribution of its profits does not apply to them, but Bardi and Peruzzi guarantee their authority on stable income on deposits (mainly about 8% per annum), to which, in particularly successful years, some addition is made.

The amount of borrowed funds in the capital of companies can be judged by the following data: in 1310, the capital stock of Bardi company contributed by its 15 members (10 from the Bardi family and 5 outsiders) amounted to 91 thousand lire, while deposits made only in the main office of the company in Florence (excluding branches), amounted to about 26 thousand lire.

By the end of the first decade of the XIV century, the operations of both houses are gaining enormous scope. Bardi and Peruzzi have large branches in Naples and other cities of southern Italy , Sicily , Genoa , Venice and Perugia , on the islands of the Mediterranean Sea : Mallorca , Cyprus , Rhodes , in European trade and political centers: Avignon , Lyon , Bruges , Antwerp , Paris and London . Among the clients of bankers are the king of England, the king of Naples, the king of Cyprus, the grandmaster of the Rhodes Order, the close associate of Pope John XXII, Cardinal Napoleone Orsini .

Since the beginning of the twenties of the XIV century, in the affairs of Bardi and Peruzzi, operations of their London branches began to acquire special significance. King Edward II, who is in dire need of money for his personal life and government activities, takes very large amounts of money from them, paying back a deposit of customs duties, tithing, a number of special taxes, equating them by rights with English merchants, allowing them to take wool to especially preferential terms.

Also in 1317, Bardi and Peruzzi received a deposit on a deposit throughout England for most of the papal income. With all this, loans to a wide range of private individuals, primarily from the king’s entourage, are combined.

“Huge, unprecedented in England before, sums flow from all over the country, from all walks of life to the cash desks of the greedy, prudent and unshakable Italian businessmen in their thirst. "Their office, like a giant spider, sucks blood from all over England, and England reacts to this with unanimous popular hatred."

- Gukovsky M.A. Italian Renaissance. - L., 1990

In 1326, an angry mob of Londoners attacked the office and shops of Bardi and subjected them to rout and plunder. However, Bardi and Peruzzi continue their activities in England. In the next 1327, young Edward III ascended the throne, immediately starting the war with Scotland and intensifying preparations for the war with France and, on the basis of this, was in strained relations with parliament. Constantly in need of money and not wanting to turn to the parliament for them, Edward III, even more than his predecessor, resorted to financial assistance from Bardi and Peruzzi, not only giving them a number of royal incomes, but also laying down royal jewels. By the early thirties, Bardi and Peruzzi had completely and completely concentrated in their hands all state and church taxes and requisitions, becoming, as it were, the Ministry of Finance of England. This happens so completely that the king himself, the queen, the court - receive funds for their personal needs only from the offices of Florentine bankers according to a special, pre-compiled list.

In 1340, Edward III was unable to defeat France with one blow, the war took a protracted character - later it was called the Centennial . Both sides — England and France — covered the costs of maintaining it through loans from Bardi and Peruzzi.

In the same 1340, the Republic of Florence issued state loan tickets to combat plague and crop failure, which accrued 15% per annum. This despite the fact that the average profitability of commercial enterprises of that era was 17%. According to the papers of Bardi and Peruzzi, it was possible to get only 8% per annum - therefore their owners hastened to get rid of them, but Bardi and Peruzzi simply had no cash - the war “ate” everything.

Edward III, from whom the Florentines tried to get at least part of the money, said that he did not intend to pay for his obligations. After the king’s declaration, which in fact declared bankruptcy, the head of the company Peruzzi died in the same place, in London, from a heart attack. Attempts to get the debts of the French crown led to the same effect - the Florentines did not see the money.

In 1340 and 1342, Bardi made three unsuccessful attempts to escape through a political coup in Florence.

In 1343, Peruzzi declared their bankruptcy, who managed to pay 37% of their obligations to their creditors. Bardi hold on for another three years, and when in 1346 they were declared bankrupt, they manage to pay even more - 45%.

However, these bankruptcies turned into a tremendous economic disaster for Florence. The bankruptcy of leading firms caused the ruin of a number of smaller ones under their control, tens of thousands of depositors were ruined, the entire economic system of Italy, representing in the middle of the XIV century in many respects a single whole, was deeply shaken.

Then followed the pan-European economic collapse. Papa, the Kingdom of Naples, the Duchy of Cyprus went bankrupt, and behind them - almost all of Europe. Giovanni Villani wrote in his chronicles: “For Florence and the whole Christian world, the losses from the ruin of Bardi and Peruzzi were even harder than from all the wars of the past. Everyone who had money in Florence lost it, and hunger and fear reigned everywhere outside the republic. ”

• Gondi
• Peruzzi
• Portinari, Beatrice , in the marriage of Bardi - Dante's muse.

• Pachkalov A.V. Financial dynasties: architects of globalism. - M.: Conceptual, 2019 .-- 320 p. - ISBN 978-5-907172-32-6 .
• Gukovsky M. A. "Italian Renaissance." - L., 1990
• Gerasimov A. E. "Bankruptcy"
• Giovanni Villani The New Chronicle (Nuova Cronica) Book 11