Florentine Banking Crisis (1340s)

Timeline

1. 1343–1344London · LondonUnder the fiscal pressures of the Hundred Years' War, King Edward III of England ceased repaying the huge loans owed to Italian banks, and the Florentine bankers' branches in London and Bruges faced a severe liquidity crisis.
2. 1345–1346Florence · FlorenceThe Peruzzi and Bardi, two great banking families that had dominated cross-border exchange and royal financing in Europe, declared bankruptcy one after another, triggering a chain reaction in Florence's financial circles, with many depositors and affiliated merchants suffering losses.
3. 1346–1350Bruges · FlandersThe crisis spread along the Florence–Bruges–Avignon–London financial corridor, blocking the financing channels of the papacy and various royal houses, and creating space for the rise of new banking families such as the Medici.