Medici Bank (Early Period)

Timeline

1. 1397–1429Florence · TuscanyGiovanni di Bicci de' Medici established the Medici & Co. bank in Florence, using partnerships and separate account books. Starting with wool-trade financing, foreign exchange, and papal tax remittances, it laid the foundation of the family's financial-political complex.
2. 1434–1464Florence and Rome · ItalyAfter Cosimo de' Medici took power, the bank opened branches in Rome, Venice, Bruges, London, and elsewhere, becoming the papacy's principal financial agent. Organizationally it used head-office–branch partnership agreements and risk isolation, forming an early model of a transnational commercial banking network.
3. 1469–1492Florence · TuscanyUnder Lorenzo de' Medici, bank profits funded humanist scholarship and the arts, deeply binding family rule to the financial network. Some overseas branches fell into losses from bad debts and political risk, and organizational resilience began to decline.
4. 1494Florence · TuscanyAfter Piero de' Medici went into exile, the Medici Bank declared bankruptcy and liquidation, and the transnational branch network dissolved. Its partnership branches, papal financial agency, and double-entry bookkeeping practices became an important reference model for later European banking and Florentine financial history.