LOMBARD, an ancient name in England for a banker. It was derived from the Langobanli, or Lombards, a company of Italian merchant., the great money-changers and usurers of the 13th century, who settled in England before the year 1274, and took up their first residence in s. street of the city, stall called, from them, Lombard Street. They appear to have been first employed in England as bankers or money agents for the popes, and in the reign of Edward I. there were four companies of Sienese merchants settled in London, under the title of Campsores Pave.
Stowe, in his' Survey of London,' says, "Then have ye Lombard Street, so called of the Longobanla and other merchants, strangers of diverse nations, assembling there twice every day," which had that name certainly before the time of Edward H. The meeting of which merchant. and others there continued until the 22nd of December in the year 1565, " on the which day the said merchants began to make their meetings at the Bourse, a place then new buildod for that pur posse in the ward of Cornhill, and was since by her majesty, Queen Elizabeth. named the Royal Exchange."
The holisms were not only bankers and money-leodera, but wealthy merchants ; and afforded the assistance of their capital by advances for wool and other productions of the country, on terms which often occa sioned complainu of usury against them. Under the protection of the pope they prospered for a considerable time; but the loans advanced by them to Edward ill. (who had made the Basil and Peruzzi, mer chants of Florence, his agents, his revenues and wools going through their bands, while they furnished his expenses during the war with France) re far exceeded die receipts, that he owed to one firm 180,000 and to the other 135,000 marks. These sums they lost ; and the occur rence greatly shook the confidence of the Lombard bankers. They oentinued, however, to follow their trade, and when Henry VI. borrowed money of them, they had the customs mortgaged to them for security.
(E. A. Howl, in Arrherdoeia, vol. xxviii. 1830.)