Which mattered more: a stable unit, efficient settlement, or city backing?

A public institution serving private commerce creates an interesting balance of power. Public sponsorship and private merchant use combined to create ...

The bank's later operations changed; treating its entire history as a fixed model of pure safe storage is misleading. The Wisselbank changed over...

Its accounts offered a standardized way to settle certain transactions without physically exchanging mixed circulating coins each time. Standardized a...

Were the decisive weaknesses organizational, political or the risks inherent in lending across borders?

Florentine political influence cannot be treated as a substitute for liquidity, capital or disciplined credit decisions. Political connections can ope...

The bank's decline unfolded over time; attributing everything to one bad loan would simplify a complicated business and political history. One di...

A network of branches sounds modern until weak controls catch up with it. Branch managers and powerful borrowers created opportunities but also expose...

Would you rather have better records or better judgment?

Bookkeeping standards spread unevenly, and historians distinguish codification from the first invention of a technique. The difference between inventi...

Even the most perfect spreadsheet can't turn a bad loan into a good one. A balanced set of books does not guarantee honesty, sound assets or adeq...

The method developed through practice and was later famously described in print by Luca Pacioli in 1494. Pacioli described a technique; he didn't...