Riccardi Of Lucca
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The Riccardi of Lucca were a medieval merchant society in
Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one o ...
,
Tuscany Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...
(in modern-day
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
).


History

The Riccardi of Lucca had a long-term banking relationship with King
Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassa ...
between 1272 and 1307. Prior to 1272, the English kings had occasional dealings with Italian merchants, mainly in purchasing luxury goods for the household and arranging for balance transfers to Rome. The outbreak of war between
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
in 1294 led to a
credit crunch A credit crunch (also known as a credit squeeze, credit tightening or credit crisis) is a sudden reduction in the general availability of loans (or credit) or a sudden tightening of the conditions required to obtain a loan from banks. A credit cr ...
in international money markets. When Edward sought financial support from the Riccardi, they were unable to advance him any funds. In response, Edward seized the Riccardi’s assets in England, effectively bankrupting them. The Riccardi derived significant benefits from their connection to the English monarchy, such as using the King’s Exchequer Courts to pursue their debtors and special access to the English wool market. During the period where they were bankers to the English Crown, the Riccardi were involved in around half of all the forward contracts with English wool producers. Forward contract prices were calculated manually using techniques similar to those used in modern-day
quantitative finance Mathematical finance, also known as quantitative finance and financial mathematics, is a field of applied mathematics, concerned with mathematical modeling of financial markets. In general, there exist two separate branches of finance that require ...
. When the relationship between the English Crown and Riccardi broke, England was unable to raise finance in international money markets and had to impose heavy levels of domestic taxation. These tax demands had wide repercussions on the 13th-century English economy and were one of the main causes of the constitutional crisis of 1297.


References

Medieval Italy {{Italy-hist-stub