hemselves in every country, and the general
progress of commerce wore off the bigotry that had obstructed their
reception. A distinction was made between moderate and exorbitant
interest; and though the casuists did not acquiesce in this legal
regulation, yet it satisfied, even in superstitious times, the
consciences of provident traders.[639] The Italian bankers were
frequently allowed to farm the customs in England, as a security
perhaps for loans which, were not very punctually repaid.[640] In 1345
the Bardi at Florence, the greatest company in Italy, became bankrupt,
Edward III. owing them, in principal and interest, 900,000 gold florins.
Another, the Peruzzi, failed at the same time, being creditors to Edward
for 600,000 florins. The king of Sicily owed 100,000 florins to each of
these bankers. Their failure involved, of course, a multitude of
Florentine citizens, and was a heavy misfortune to the state.[641]

[Sidenote: Banks of Genoa and others.]

The earliest bank of deposit, instituted for the accommodation of
private merchants, is said to have been that of Barcelona, in 1401.[642]
The banks of Venice and Genoa were of a different description. Although
the former of these two has the advantage of greater antiquity, having
been formed, as we are told, in the twelfth century, yet its early
history is not so clear as that of Genoa, nor its political importance
so remarkable, however similar might be its origin.[643] During the wars
of Genoa in the fourteenth century, she had borrowed large sums of
private citizens, to whom the revenues were pledged for repayment. The
republic of Florence had set a recent, though not a very encouraging
example of a public loan, to defray the expense of her war against
Mastino della Scala, in 1336. The chief mercantile firms, as well as
individual citizens, furnished money on an assignment of the taxes,
receiving fifteen per cent. interest, which appears to have been above
the rate of private usury.[644] The state was not unreasonably
considered a worse debtor than some of her citizens, for in a few years
these loans were consolidated into a general fund, or _monte_, with some
deduction from the capital and a great diminution of interest; so that
an original debt of one hundred florins sold only for twenty-five.[645]
But I have not found that these creditors formed at Florence a corporate
body, or took any part, as such, in the affairs of the republic. The
case was different at Gen