Company
DissolvedThe Medici Bank
Florence · 1397 – 1494
The bank collapsed in 1494, as the French invaded Florence and the branch books could no longer be made to balance.
The Medici Bank was not a bank in the modern sense. It was a family partnership, founded in 1397 by Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, with a head office in Florence and branches that answered to it.
At its height, under Cosimo and then Lorenzo, it was the largest bank in Europe. Popes, kings, and wool merchants settled debts through its books. The profit was real, and so was the political power that came with holding other people's money.
How the work was organized
Each branch was a separate partnership, with a local manager who was also a partner. That kept a dishonest cashier from sinking the whole house, and it let Florence recall a manager without closing the city. Clerks kept double-entry books. Couriers carried letters that were the actual movement of credit. The general manager in Florence read the branch accounts and decided who still deserved a share.
Why it ended
The London branch lent too much to Edward IV and could not collect. The Bruges branch followed. By the 1490s the structure that had limited losses could no longer hide them. When Charles VIII invaded Italy in 1494, the Medici were expelled from Florence and the bank failed with the regime it had funded. What survived was the family name, not the firm.
The work it organized
- Branch manager
- Bookkeeper
- Courier
- Wool factor