Ricciardi of Lucca
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The Riccardi of Lucca were a medieval merchant society in
Lucca Città di Lucca ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its Province of Lucca, province has a population of 383,9 ...
,
Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...
(in modern-day
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). At their greatest extent, they had branches in
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,
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,
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,
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,
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,
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and
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.


History

The Riccardi of Lucca had a long-term banking relationship with King
Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 1254 ...
between 1272 and 1307. Prior to 1272, the English kings had occasional dealings with Italian merchants, mainly in purchasing luxury goods for the household and arranging for balance transfers to Rome. The outbreak of war between
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
and
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in 1294 led to a
credit crunch A credit crunch (a credit squeeze, credit tightening or credit crisis) is a sudden reduction in the general availability of loans (or credit) or a sudden tightening of the conditions required to obtain a loan from banks. A credit crunch generally ...
in international money markets. When Edward sought financial support from the Riccardi, they were unable to advance him any funds. In response, Edward seized the Riccardi’s assets in England, effectively bankrupting them. The Riccardi derived significant benefits from their connection to the English monarchy, such as using the King’s Exchequer Courts to pursue their debtors and special access to the English wool market. During the period when they were bankers to the English Crown, the Riccardi were involved in around half of all the forward contracts with English wool producers. Forward contract prices were calculated manually using techniques similar to those used in modern-day
quantitative finance Mathematical finance, also known as quantitative finance and financial mathematics, is a field of applied mathematics, concerned with mathematical modeling in the financial field. In general, there exist two separate branches of finance that requ ...
. When the relationship between the English Crown and Riccardi broke, England was unable to raise finance in international money markets and had to impose heavy levels of domestic taxation. These tax demands had wide repercussions on the 13th-century English economy and were one of the main causes of the constitutional crisis of 1297.


References

Medieval history of Italy {{Italy-hist-stub