The Medieval Super-Companies: A Study of the Peruzzi Company of FlorenceFrom this analysis, the author offers a radical reassessment of the nature and role of these extraordinary organizations. He establishes that although they engaged in all forms of commerce in substantial volume, what made them exceptional was commodity trading, especially in grain, which they conducted on a heroic scale. It was this activity that required heavy capital, sophisticated organization, and an international network. But the author also exposes the limitations of their financial power and explodes the myth that their downfall was caused mainly by bad loans to Edward III to finance his invasions of France. This book is much more than a business history. It presents the operations of these companies in the context of the swiftly moving political, military, and economic developments in Florence, the Mediterranean, and western Europe during a tumultuous period. |
Contents
List of tables figures and map page ix | 1 |
The company and the family | 11 |
The nature of the business | 38 |
The structure of the Peruzzi Company | 76 |
The accounting of the Peruzzi Company | 101 |
The prosperous years 13001324 | 127 |
The decline begins 13251335 | 156 |
The critical years 13351340 | 184 |
The aftermath | 230 |
Conclusions | 243 |
Appendixes | 251 |
Al Detail of others balances at July 1 1335 | 256 |
Peruzzi Company and shareholder data | 259 |
A6 Changes in company loan balances | 265 |
Exchange rate trends | 266 |
Bibliography | 272 |
Common terms and phrases
Abulafia Acciaiuoli Amideo Angevin assets Avignon balances Bankers bankruptcy Bardi and Peruzzi Bardi Company Black Death Bonifazio branch Brienne Bruges Buonaccorsi capital cash Chap Chapter close cloth commune company's creditors crisi Currency Davidsohn debts deposits Donato early Economic History Edward III Edward III's employees England English wool entry evidence export factors Filippo Peruzzi Filippo Villani Finance fiorino Firenze Florence Florence's Florentine florins foreign fourteenth century France Francesco Fryde Gherardo Ghibelline Giotto Giovanni Villani grain trade Guido Hospitalers Ibid important Italian July Kingdom of Naples liabilities libri loans London losses Lucca Luzzati Medici Bank Medieval Trade Mediterranean merchants Naples operations Orsanmichele pany papacy papal partners percent period Peruzzi Company Peruzzi family Pisa political profit Raugi Renaissance Florence rence Renouard Rinieri Roover salary Sapori Secret Book shareholders Sicily Soderini southern Italy Storia economica super-companies tion Tommaso University Press wool trade Yver