MEDICI, Banks of the. The opulent house of Medici owed its origin, like that of the scarcely less wealthy house of Fuggers (q.v.), to the profits of the woolens trade, the progenitors of both houses having been weavers and dyers of woolen cloths, in their time the principal constituent of European garments; the cultivation of cotton and manufacture of cotton cloths being as yet monopolized by the i Saracens. Schoenhof informs us that in 1422 Florence (under the Medici) had more than 70 banks, which by the year 1472 were merged or consolidated into 33. So important were these institutions to the Florentine republic, that they earned the sobriquet of the 4( Fifth Es tate." The Medici had 16 banking houses in different European cities. (Journal American Bankers Association, September 1916). In the 15th century one of the Medicis was appointed treasurer to the Papal See; in the 16th century one of the Fuggers held the same high office. It is an interesting circumstance that the former became a Platonist, while the latter joined the Reformation. Lorenzo de Medici's appoint ment as treasurer was made by Sixtus IV in 1471; Huldric Fugger's, by Paul III about 1549. Both of these popes afterward assailed their appointees; but the banks they controlled and the important trades they financed rendered them too powerful to be easily The Medicean banks received deposits of money for safekeeping, loaned the same out upon col lateral, discounted commercial paper, issued bills of exchange, and traded in foreign coins and bullion. They possessed mints in Florence.
Urbino, Barile, and other places, in which they struck their own coins, the series beginning in 1204, upon the fall of the Greek Empire, the dates in the old calendar being 10 years earlier. These coinages enabled the Medicean banks to make highly profitable ex changes of old coins and bullion at the various emporia in Europe and Asia which were brought within the circle of their commercial influence. Their earliest gold coin (the Florin) was struck in 1252, the series being issued by the gonfal ionere (Standard-bearers) of the Republic of Florence until 1533, when they were struck he the Medici as dukes of Florence, afterward as dukes of Etruria. Maintained at their full legal weight (56 English grains, fine gold) the florins continued to be current in all the ports of Europe for centuries, their only rivals be ing the sequins or ducats of Venice. For the history of other ancient banks. See BARCELONA, BANK OF; BYZANTIUM, BANK OF; FUGGERS, BANK OF THE; GENOA, BANK OF; TYRE, BANK OF; VENICE, BANK OF.